Narrative:

We were on the drllr arrival into in iah. We initially loaded the 26R transition and approach while on the ground. On our initial check in with approach we were assigned 26L. We changed the runway in the FMS and checked to make sure the fixes matched up. We verified that the runway and approach loaded; the downwind point changed from doom to vldez and the rest of the fixes were correct. Upon reaching domno the plane didn't start to turn and went into roll mode and we flew past the fix. We immediately started to turn back to rejoin the arrival and that was when ATC asked us if we were turning. We rejoined and nothing else was said. Later in the day the chief pilot called me and told me that ATC had sent an email to him about the incident and also that 3 other of our planes also had the same thing happen. He explained that it was a known issue with the database. The problem arises when there is a runway change and the downwind point changes. The FMS will create a duplicate waypoint and that is where lateral navigation will be lost. Both of us thought we verified the flight plan correctly and did not see a duplicate waypoint in the flight plan. Discussing the incident we think that maybe the duplicate waypoints were separated by a page break and we didn't recognize that there were duplicate waypoints. The main threat was the runway change in the FMS with a known database error. That led to the undesired aircraft state of being off course. The error that we had was an improper check and verification of the FMS flight plan after the fact and not being quick enough to intervene when we didn't make the downwind turn. To prevent this from happening again I can ensure a closer verification of the flight plan. The database issue with creating duplicate waypoint is something that absolutely needs to be fixed.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: EMB-145 Captain reports that his aircraft failed to turn at DOMNO on the DRLLR 2 to IAH. The Chief Pilot informs the Captain that there is a database error that creates a duplicate waypoint when a runway change is initiated.

Narrative: We were on the DRLLR arrival into in IAH. We initially loaded the 26R transition and approach while on the ground. On our initial check in with approach we were assigned 26L. We changed the runway in the FMS and checked to make sure the fixes matched up. We verified that the runway and approach loaded; the downwind point changed from DOOM to VLDEZ and the rest of the fixes were correct. Upon reaching DOMNO the plane didn't start to turn and went into roll mode and we flew past the fix. We immediately started to turn back to rejoin the arrival and that was when ATC asked us if we were turning. We rejoined and nothing else was said. Later in the day the Chief Pilot called me and told me that ATC had sent an email to him about the incident and also that 3 other of our planes also had the same thing happen. He explained that it was a known issue with the database. The problem arises when there is a runway change and the downwind point changes. The FMS will create a duplicate waypoint and that is where lateral navigation will be lost. Both of us thought we verified the flight plan correctly and did not see a duplicate waypoint in the flight plan. Discussing the incident we think that maybe the duplicate waypoints were separated by a page break and we didn't recognize that there were duplicate waypoints. The main threat was the runway change in the FMS with a known database error. That led to the undesired aircraft state of being off course. The error that we had was an improper check and verification of the FMS flight plan after the fact and not being quick enough to intervene when we didn't make the downwind turn. To prevent this from happening again I can ensure a closer verification of the flight plan. The database issue with creating duplicate waypoint is something that absolutely needs to be fixed.

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.