Narrative:

While being handed off from msp center to msp approach; both the pilot monitoring (pm) and I were fully planned; briefed and ready to shoot the ILS to 30L. We checked-in to approach; where it's my understanding (pilot flying) that we were instructed to fly a vector and descend to 4;000 feet and expect the 30L approach. Upon checking onto the frequency I noticed that the frequency was completely saturated with traffic and the controller sounded behind. After reaching 4;000 feet we were then instructed to fly another vector to intercept the 30R localizer. At that moment we were only a few miles from the 30L localizer in which changing runway assignment at that critical phase is challenging in itself with just a second or two to adjust; but the pm accepted the clearance and changed the ILS frequency in both navigation radios.I thought this was not a good course of action in which I would have rejected the clearance to give us more time to change navigation frequencies and set the FMC up to properly fly the approach. As I started to fly the new vector I noticed that I couldn't arm the localizer on the MCP panel and tried to just fly by heading mode to get on the 30R localizer. I instructed the pm to set up the FMC so I could arm the localizer. At this point we flew through the localizer for 30R in which the controller gave us a new heading and took us off the approach corridor completely for new sequencing. There was an error of communication between us; the flight crew; and ATC; with the proper runway assignment; and more critically; poor communication between the pm and pilot flying.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier copilot reported he flew through the localizer during a late runway change to an ILS to Runway 30R at MSP and was re-sequenced for the approach.

Narrative: While being handed off from MSP Center to MSP Approach; both the Pilot Monitoring (PM) and I were fully planned; briefed and ready to shoot the ILS to 30L. We checked-in to Approach; where it's my understanding (Pilot Flying) that we were instructed to fly a vector and descend to 4;000 feet and expect the 30L approach. Upon checking onto the frequency I noticed that the frequency was completely saturated with traffic and the Controller sounded behind. After reaching 4;000 feet we were then instructed to fly another vector to intercept the 30R Localizer. At that moment we were only a few miles from the 30L Localizer in which changing runway assignment at that critical phase is challenging in itself with just a second or two to adjust; but the PM accepted the clearance and changed the ILS frequency in both NAV radios.I thought this was not a good course of action in which I would have rejected the clearance to give us more time to change NAV frequencies and set the FMC up to properly fly the approach. As I started to fly the new vector I noticed that I couldn't arm the LOC on the MCP panel and tried to just fly by heading mode to get on the 30R Localizer. I instructed the PM to set up the FMC so I could arm the LOC. At this point we flew through the LOC for 30R in which the Controller gave us a new heading and took us off the approach corridor completely for new sequencing. There was an error of communication between us; the Flight Crew; and ATC; with the proper runway assignment; and more critically; poor communication between the PM and Pilot Flying.

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.