Medium Large Transport
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Situational Awareness
Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Returned To Clearance; Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification
Human Factors
Getting ready for our flight I got to the airplane and started planning. Because I was the PM on this leg; I was going to let the First Officer (FO) set up the FMS. I did in fact enter the 'canned' route and the flight number on the first page of the RTE page. I did not look any further; as we still did not have the PDC. I got out my Surface tablet and entered the filed route in the JEPP App. While I was doing that the FO came in and started loading the box. We received the PDC and I remember him commenting that the route was different. He began to fix the routing (canned route vs cleared route). Once we started taxiing out things got busy.We had planned on departing 28L. Just as we started to turn the corner to hold short; tower instructed us to cross 28L and hold short of 28R. As we crossed the left; the FO was making the changes in to box and loaded the proper runway and reloaded the departure procedure. I confirmed the change and we were given a takeoff clearance with traffic on an 8 mile final. Everything was going normally and we were given a couple of vectors for our climb; and eventually told to go direct to LOSHN intersection. We complied. This is where the problem came in. I had not verified the flight plan for the enroute portion. When we changed the departure runway before takeoff apparently the FMS reverted back to part of the canned route. After LOSHN we were cleared to PMD. In the FMS the fixes were LOSHN; AVE; PMD.While enroute; I began to visit with our jump seater; and just as we were getting to LOSHN I looked at the map; and noticed the turn to AVE. I remember thinking that that looked like an 'odd' turn; but did not verify it against the release or PDC. Needless to say; we made the turn toward AVE and was then contacted by ATC asking about our routing. He then re-cleared us to PMD. As I began to review what had happened; it became obvious that I had neglected to verify the proper routing after we made changes to the FMS on the ground; and never went with my gut feeling that the turn looked odd. The next controller gave us a phone number to call. I contacted LAX Center. I explained to them what had happened. He did mention that LA Center was having this problem occur quite often; and that it was not only on our airline that was making this mistake; but other companies also; and that they are trying to discover the root of the problem. He assured me that there was no loss of separation; and that our course deviation did not affect anyone else.
A late change of runway in the FMC resulted in changing the cruise routing of the flight. This was at first not known to the crew. Center comments that this is a recurring event.