B737-700
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 96
Human-Machine Interface
Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Returned To Clearance
Human Factors; Procedure
We were filed FLL BEECH3 BAHMA...RAJAY A555.  The PDC cleared us - BEECH3 BAHMA ZQA -. During the preflight I checked the PDC against the filed route and against the FMC.  Noticing the change; I searched the enroute charts to verify the difference.  Somehow I went into the chart looking for RAJAY instead of ZQA; and I believe what happened was that I noticed RAJAY was on A555; so I assumed it was one of those PDC changes that does not change the route at all; just highlights a point along the already filed route. Even when I determine that such a PDC change is the case; I always enter it that way (as listed in the PDC) in the FMC and note the change (whether it is an actual change in the route or not) during my clearance briefing.   For some reason; I broke my routine this time; did not enter the PDC change (as I had mistakenly concluded there was no actual change to the route) and the PDC change to fly over ZQA was not caught prior to takeoff.  Enroute to RAJAY; ATC queried us regarding our clearance and informed us we should have been going to ZQA. I see two ways to mitigate these types of PDC errors:1)  First officers should always enter the PDC exactly as shown in the FMC; even if a change is clearly no change at all; just breaking out a waypoint on an already filed airway.2)  The PDC change notation could be cleaned up and made clearer.  Also; PDC changes that do not actually change the route at all should be eliminated. Certainly no excuse; but I think two factors led me to make this error.  One; of course; was going into the enroute chart looking for the wrong waypoint (RAJAY vice ZQA).  The other was having had quite a few PDC changes recently that did not change the actual filed route at all. That and perhaps being slightly rushed led me to be satisfied that there was no actual route change this time and to not change the FMC routing - first time I ever did that; I believe.  Completely my fault and lesson learned.   Proper procedures would have caught my mistake if followed.
Enroute to RAJAY; Center asked if we were direct ZQA. We replied negative going to RAJAY. He asked what we were cleared from Tower. There was some confusion with the First Officer and the radio. I pulled up the PDC and noticed we had missed a change. PDC showed BAHMA ZQA A555 GTK; the flight plan showed BAHMA RAJAY A555 GTK. We eventually got that across. Center asked if it was a verbal or PDC. He told us not an issue today; but that we needed to get the word out. Several of our aircraft FLL-city had missed that clearance and to please get the word out. Back on the ground; there were no mitigating circumstances for missing the change other than the PDC format. It is my fault we missed the change; period. However; both the First Officer and myself followed Company procedure; checked the PDC and the FMC separately and together. I know that change line is not obvious; is in a terrible spot; is a threat; and look for it specifically. And we still missed it.Until the PDC format changes; this sort of thing is going to continue to occur. As a pilot; I don't care what we were filed for. It is irrelevant; clutters the display; and acts to hide the real clearance. We ONLY care about the real clearance not the filed plan. Remove the filed plan from the PDC. If you can't get rid of the flight plan; at least put the clearance in a concise order of how a human would look at it. The plan first; then cleared departure; then cleared enroute; then cleared arrival. The change does not show up in a logical spot and I have to continually; and specifically force myself to look for it before the plan. It kind of hides from your attention. A short lapse and it gets overlooked. My fault; but why make it like that when it creates error?
B737 flight crew reports a track deviation departing FLL due to missing a revised segment in their PDC.