Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Situational Awareness; Communication Breakdown; Confusion
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification
Human Factors
Received verbal clearance on ground. Richmond read fixes and did not spell. Route was completely different than filed. I thought GREKO was a fix I was issued and read it back. As a crew we dual verified clearance and distance was close to what it should be. Enroute ATC cleared us direct GREKO. Shortly thereafter; Controller asked us where we were going. We told Controller GREKO. I told my partner to spell the fix for Controller and he did. Controller informed us it was GRACO; not GREKO and gave us a heading. There were no traffic or airspace conflicts that I was aware of.
Citation 560XL pilot reported fix they thought was GREKO; but was actually GRACO; causing confusion.