| Occurrence Briefs are concise reports that detail the facts surrounding a transport safety occurrence, as received in the initial notification and any follow-up enquiries. They provide an opportunity to share safety messages in the absence of an investigation. |
What happened
On 7 August 2018, a Boeing 737-8FE was being prepared for a commercial passenger flight from Sydney, New South Wales to Townsville, Queensland. As the flight crew were programming the standard instrument departure (SID) into the flight management system (FMS), an incorrect SID was entered. The flight crew had inadvertently programmed the SYDTSV1 SID into the FMS, instead of the SYDTSV2. Both SID’s commence at Sydney Airport and track to the same waypoint before separating.
A route check had been conducted by the flight crew but the error was not identified prior to take-off. Once the aircraft was airborne, Air Traffic Control (ATC) detected that the aircraft was deviating off track and notified the crew. The aircraft was placed on a heading by ATC while the correct route was entered into the FMS.
The procedure was reviewed and discussed by the flight crew.
Safety message
This incident highlights the importance of ensuring that the flight management system is programmed correctly for take-off. Ensuring that independent cross-checks are undertaken can reduce the risk that an aircraft attempts to take-off with incorrect performance data. 
Further information is available from the ATSB research report AR-2009-052, Take-off performance calculation and entry errors: A global perspective.
The ATSB SafetyWatch highlights the broad safety concerns that come out of our investigation findings and from the occurrence data reported to us by industry. One priority is Data input errors.
About this report
Decisions regarding whether to conduct an investigation, and the scope of an investigation, are based on many factors, including the level of safety benefit likely to be obtained from an investigation. For this occurrence, no investigation has been conducted and the ATSB did not verify the accuracy of the information. A brief description has been written using information supplied in the notification and any follow-up information in order to produce a short summary report, and allow for greater industry awareness of potential safety issues and possible safety actions.