An ARTCC controller expressed his concern about flight crews misinterpreting the intent of pdrs when...

Narrative:

The flight was enroute from bwi to iah. Their filed route was: kbwi.TERPZ3.ldn.J134.colns.J6.bwg..mem.J29.eld..swb.TXMEX1.kiahtheir pdr [preferred departure routing] issued via pre departure clearance was: TERPZ3.ldn.J134.colns.J6.hvqat hvq; the flight turned off their route (J6 - next fix bwg) and proceeded direct mem. When questioned; the pilot stated that he had received an amended clearance from bwi that 'basically had us going to hvq then direct mem from our original flight plan'.at ZID; we are seeing this as a frequent and recurring problem with departures from the dc metro area. For several years; this has been an issue (pilots' skipping fixes after hitting a point on a pdr) along J134. The same problem; skipping fixes; is now occurring along J6. I suspect that there is either an FMS database/programming problem; or a pilot knowledge/complacency issue. I recommend either changing the pre departure clearance format to include more fixes to make it foolproof for pilots; or issue full route clearances.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An ARTCC Controller expressed his concern about flight crews misinterpreting the intent of PDRs when included on their PDC messages and subsequently failing to follow their 'cleared' routing.

Narrative: The flight was enroute from BWI to IAH. Their filed route was: KBWI.TERPZ3.LDN.J134.COLNS.J6.BWG..MEM.J29.ELD..SWB.TXMEX1.KIAHTheir PDR [Preferred Departure Routing] issued via PDC was: TERPZ3.LDN.J134.COLNS.J6.HVQAt HVQ; the flight turned off their route (J6 - next fix BWG) and proceeded direct MEM. When questioned; the pilot stated that he had received an amended clearance from BWI that 'basically had us going to HVQ then direct MEM from our original flight plan'.At ZID; we are seeing this as a frequent and recurring problem with departures from the DC metro area. For several years; this has been an issue (pilots' skipping fixes after hitting a point on a PDR) along J134. The same problem; skipping fixes; is now occurring along J6. I suspect that there is either an FMS database/programming problem; or a pilot knowledge/complacency issue. I recommend either changing the PDC format to include more fixes to make it foolproof for pilots; or issue full route clearances.

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.

Attributes
ACN	1058665
Time
Date	201212
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZID.ARTCC
State Reference	IN
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737-900
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	FMS/FMC
Person 1
Function	Enroute
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Track / Heading All Types

An ARTCC controller expressed his concern about flight crews misinterpreting the intent of pdrs when included on their pre departure clearance messages and subsequently failing to follow their 'cleared' routing.