Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Human-Machine Interface
Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General None Reported / Taken
Human Factors
Our preflight and loading of the FMC was routine and seemed normal that day. We had requested via ACARS the flight and uploaded the flight plan and winds via ACARS. We then checked the route and everything seemed normal to us. Distances; as I recall never gave us a red flag that one coordinate may have been entered incorrectly. Our flight proceeded normally and the only event that seemed out of place was when ATC asked us to verify our next position after 160E. We told them and never heard anything about our flight path being off from our flight plan. We made company position reports in accordance with SOP and never heard from operations that our flight path was different from that of our filing. It turns out that our flight path deviated 120 NM from our flight plan. Somehow our coordinate of 34N160E got entered as 36N160E; causing the airplane to incur a gross navigational error. We landed at our destination without any ill effect towards the flight. We adhered to company procedures during the route verification check. It was I; the Captain; and the First Officer that accomplished this check. My suggestion is to have every crew member on duty on the flight deck when this check is being accomplished. CRM is a big part of the safety environment we try to cultivate and I think the more people involved in this route verification; the better prepared we will be.
The aircraft deviated 120 NM from the flight plan because it navigated to 36N160E instead of 34N160E. The coordinates were not accurate in the FMC and the flight crew apparently did not recognize the inaccuracy.
B747 flight crew is informed after the fact that they entered and flew to an oceanic waypoint that was not part of their flight plan. ATC noted the discrepancy in advance but did not question the flight crew.