Narrative:

On taxi out we had to stop to resolve an INS alignment issue. We completed the before takeoff checklist. At the line FMC's I pulled up the route page and verified 16R; cupid 1 to cupid; transition altitude and magenta line correct. LNAV/VNAV was engaged and we took off. Take off was normal. At approximately 1;000 ft while I was watching airspeed; rate of climb and degree of pitch the flight director commanded a left turn. I momentarily banked the a/c to the left for approximately two seconds when I realized that the departure called for a straight out to the shoreline. I leveled the wings called for heading select and started a turn back to the [runway] centerline. Not fast enough the tokyo controller asked why we were deviating to the left. We asked for direct to the first waypoint which the controller obliged and then had us level off at 7;000 ft for crossing traffic. As far as I know there was no loss of separation laterally and definitely not vertically. After we cleaned up the flaps we tried to figure out why the flight director had commanded a left turn and we found that at some point between the checklist and the takeoff roll the FMC had dumped the departure. I have been on the 747 about 6 years and have never seen it do this before although I have heard anecdotal stories about flaws in the honeywell system most notably the sfo incident a few years ago that almost put a 400 into the bay.

Related reports:

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B747 flight crew reports SID's and STAR's dropping out of the FMC after takeoff; resulting in a track deviation. The missing STAR is detected and replaced prior to any deviations.

Narrative: On taxi out we had to stop to resolve an INS alignment issue. We completed the Before Takeoff checklist. At the line FMC's I pulled up the route page and verified 16R; Cupid 1 to Cupid; transition altitude and magenta line correct. LNAV/VNAV was engaged and we took off. Take off was normal. At approximately 1;000 FT while I was watching airspeed; rate of climb and degree of pitch the flight director commanded a left turn. I momentarily banked the a/c to the left for approximately two seconds when I realized that the departure called for a straight out to the shoreline. I leveled the wings called for heading select and started a turn back to the [runway] centerline. Not fast enough the Tokyo Controller asked why we were deviating to the left. We asked for direct to the first waypoint which the Controller obliged and then had us level off at 7;000 FT for crossing traffic. As far as I know there was no loss of separation laterally and definitely not vertically. After we cleaned up the flaps we tried to figure out why the flight director had commanded a left turn and we found that at some point between the checklist and the takeoff roll the FMC had dumped the departure. I have been on the 747 about 6 years and have never seen it do this before although I have heard anecdotal stories about flaws in the Honeywell system most notably the SFO incident a few years ago that almost put a 400 into the bay.

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.