A flight crew heard an ATC clearance to beckley (bkw) but bugme; 130 NM away on J91; was intended.

Attributes
ACN	1035469
Time
Date	201209
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZTL.ARTCC
State Reference	GA
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Large Transport Low Wing 2 Turbojet Eng
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 202
Person 2
Function	First Officer
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Track / Heading All Types

Narrative:

South of vxv; ATC cleared us direct to bugme. The problem is both the first officer and I thought we heard bkw (beckley). Both these fixes arguably sound the same. We even read back; 'company flight number; direct beckley.' we then line selected bkw on the FMC and executed it. Approximately one to two minutes later; center asked us where we were going; and said; 'your course was way right of direct to bugme. Turn to 360 and proceed direct bugme; flight planned route.' we re-input bugme and proceeded direct; then flight planned route. I'm not sure what we could have done differently. Both of us thought we heard 'beckley.' we even read it back as beckley. ATC is in my understanding required to correct us. But; we thought we were doing as instructed.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A flight crew heard an ATC clearance to Beckley (BKW) but BUGME; 130 NM away on J91; was intended.

Narrative: South of VXV; ATC cleared us direct to BUGME. The problem is both the First Officer and I thought we heard BKW (Beckley). Both these fixes arguably sound the same. We even read back; 'Company flight number; direct Beckley.' We then line selected BKW on the FMC and executed it. Approximately one to two minutes later; Center asked us where we were going; and said; 'Your course was way right of direct to BUGME. Turn to 360 and proceed direct BUGME; flight planned route.' We re-input BUGME and proceeded direct; then flight planned route. I'm not sure what we could have done differently. Both of us thought we heard 'Beckley.' We even read it back as Beckley. ATC is in my understanding required to correct us. But; we thought we were doing as instructed.

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.