B747-200
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Situational Awareness; Human-Machine Interface; Confusion; Communication Breakdown; Fatigue
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Other / Unknown
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification
Company Policy; Human Factors; Staffing
Just before entering Afghanistan Airspace the pilot not flying contacted Kabul ATC on VHF 2. I was monitoring VHF 1 (Karachi ATC) and also listening in on VHF 2. When I heard the pilot not flying telling Kabul that our destination was Kabul (OAKB) I corrected him and told him that our destination was Bagram (OAIX) and he relayed that to Kabul ATC. Abeam Kandahar (OAKN) I did my approach briefing and we continued our flight. At SIBLO we got radar vectors by Kabul ATC. After extensive vectoring for Approach we realized that something was not right since our position did not match up with our Bagram Approach in the FMS. When we told the ATC Controller that our destination was Bagram he advised that was news to him. He was vectoring us for an approach to Kabul. We then got vectors for Bagram and landed there. I've learned to make sure that ATC controller knows your landing airport and pay close attention to where he is vectoring you for an approach.
I personally entered the flight information into the FMS. I mistakenly entered the Kabul identifier into the destination box of the FMS. This error was caught by myself; in flight; just south of the Kandahar Airport enroute to BAGRAM. I definitely had KABUL on my mind as the destination that morning. Poor sleep and a 19 hour duty day the previous day contributed mightily to this incident; in my opinion. ...Crews were a scarce commodity before we arrived here in Dubai and when we arrived; we were quickly assigned another trip that did not coincide at all with our sleeping schedule.
A B747-200 First Officer; fatigued by duty cycles out of sync with his diurnal cycle; entered OAKB vice OAIX as their destination. Two failed vectors for landing occurred before the flight crew became aware of the anomaly and subsequent vectors to the correct airport were successful.