Narrative:

As bwi tmc with the dc metro hot line active; I received a call via the 123 line from ZDC requesting to change a route on air carrier X to phx so I considered that the first print out of air carrier X would be that amendment. I scanned the 3 positions in the tower for a flight plan with that call sign and didn't see it. I may or not have notified clearance delivery of the impending change because of the numerous swaps taking place and multiple restrictions due to weather. I had been swapping most of the flights for west coast airports over buffr as the first fix and I assume that is what was sent via pre departure clearance to air carrier X which required an apreq with pct for departure sequence. After air carrier X got airborne; pct tmu called and asked what flight plan had been issued to air carrier X. At this point I located the new flight plan sitting in clearance deliveries left bay with the full route sitting on top of it; which meant that it wasn't issued but the active flight plan in the system. So due to the demands of swaps; multiple apreq's; and departure demand he got through and departed on the wrong flight plan. Other factors are all arrivals landing on our main jet departure runway 28 for winds; large departure push of the morning; multiple flight plan revisions; and changes to those revisions due to changes in the weather along the route and traffic volume on reroutes. Automation shouldn't allow this flight to depart. Armt bar codes should change with flight plan amendments so an error warning is issued when and if a flight plan makes it all the way to take off clearance. At that point the tower has time to verify that the flight plan is correct and if not change it before the departure controller sees the aircraft taking the wrong transition off the SID.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: BWI Controller described a wrong flight plan issuance event when an amended clearance was not noted and traffic departed with the wrong routing.

Narrative: As BWI TMC with the DC Metro hot line active; I received a call via the 123 line from ZDC requesting to change a route on Air Carrier X to PHX so I considered that the first print out of Air Carrier X would be that amendment. I scanned the 3 positions in the Tower for a flight plan with that call sign and didn't see it. I may or not have notified Clearance Delivery of the impending change because of the numerous SWAPS taking place and multiple restrictions due to weather. I had been swapping most of the flights for West Coast airports over BUFFR as the first fix and I assume that is what was sent via PDC to Air Carrier X which required an APREQ with PCT for departure sequence. After Air Carrier X got airborne; PCT TMU called and asked what flight plan had been issued to Air Carrier X. At this point I located the new flight plan sitting in Clearance Deliveries left bay with the full route sitting on top of it; which meant that it wasn't issued but the active Flight Plan in the system. So due to the demands of SWAPS; multiple APREQ's; and departure demand he got through and departed on the wrong flight plan. Other factors are all arrivals landing on our main jet departure Runway 28 for winds; large departure push of the morning; multiple flight plan revisions; and changes to those revisions due to changes in the weather along the route and traffic volume on reroutes. Automation shouldn't allow this flight to depart. ARMT bar codes should change with flight plan amendments so an error warning is issued when and if a flight plan makes it all the way to take off clearance. At that point the Tower has time to verify that the flight plan is correct and if not change it before the Departure Controller sees the aircraft taking the wrong transition off the SID.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.