A cargo crew on an initial vhhh RNAV arrival did not understand the controller's phraseology and whi...

Narrative:

During final segment to vhhh; flight contacted vhhk radar 5 minutes from siera. We were initially issued siera 1G RNAV arrival. At siera; clearance was changed to fly siera 6D arrival for runway 25R by vhhk approach. Captain (pilot flying) noticed that with the change; we had a discontinuity between td & river & closed the points together; informing first officer (pilot monitoring) of his action. We were then given a non standard clearance; 'cleared approach 25R by full arrival.' I questioned the controller to repeat and we were again told; 'cleared 25R approach by full arrival.' I read back clearance verbatim. Pilot flying checked the arrival chart and determined that the controller wanted us to fly LNAV to river from td and we were cleared for ILS 25R from river. Immediately passing td; approach control told us to turn right to heading 350 and that our approach clearance was canceled due to non compliance with routing. Upon discussion we determined that the clearance he wanted us to fly was the td transition for 25R; but we were never issued that transition. We were then given radar vectors to final approach course. We also heard another air carrier flight behind us given the same non standard clearance phraseology and question the controller about what his intentions were. Our flight landed without further incident.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A cargo crew on an initial VHHH RNAV Arrival did not understand the Controller's phraseology and while attempting to comply with the clearance; were told they had a track deviation and given vectors to the airport.

Narrative: During final segment to VHHH; flight contacted VHHK Radar 5 minutes from SIERA. We were initially issued SIERA 1G RNAV arrival. At SIERA; clearance was changed to fly SIERA 6D arrival for Runway 25R by VHHK Approach. Captain (pilot flying) noticed that with the change; we had a discontinuity between TD & RIVER & closed the points together; informing First Officer (pilot monitoring) of his action. We were then given a non standard clearance; 'Cleared approach 25R by full arrival.' I questioned the Controller to repeat and we were again told; 'Cleared 25R approach by full arrival.' I read back clearance verbatim. Pilot flying checked the arrival chart and determined that the Controller wanted us to fly LNAV to RIVER from TD and we were cleared for ILS 25R from RIVER. Immediately passing TD; Approach Control told us to turn right to heading 350 and that our approach clearance was canceled due to non compliance with routing. Upon discussion we determined that the clearance he wanted us to fly was the TD transition for 25R; but we were never issued that transition. We were then given radar vectors to final approach course. We also heard another ACR flight behind us given the same non standard clearance phraseology and question the Controller about what his intentions were. Our flight landed without further incident.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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	1187981
Time
Date	201407
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	VHHH.Airport
State Reference	FO
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Widebody Transport
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Descent Initial Approach
Route In Use	STAR SIERA 6D
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Not Flying
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 60 Flight Crew Total 13000 Flight Crew Type 2000
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Track / Heading All Types

A cargo crew on an initial vhhh RNAV arrival did not understand the controller's phraseology and while attempting to comply with the clearance; were told they had a track deviation and given vectors to the airport.