An EMB145 flight crew departing dtw was cleared direct annts intersection; but they entered aants in...

Narrative:

We departed runway 22L on a heading of 220 degrees assigned with the autopilot engaged. Upon reaching about 5;000 ft detroit departure cleared us direct to annts intersection. The non-flying pilot commanded the FMS direct to the fix. As we began our turn to the left towards annts the departure controller advised us of a traffic alert. The flying pilot immediately disengaged the autopilot and turned to heading 245 degrees and expedited climb through 10;000 up to 13;000 as ATC instructed. Once we were re-established the autopilot was re-engaged. ATC then advised once again to turn direct annts. The non-flying pilot once again commanded the FMS direct to the fix annts. As we made the turn left once again we received another traffic alert from ATC and were instructed to turn to a heading of 250 degrees. The controller asked if we were going direct to annts. We advised that we were. The controller then advised we were not and must have the wrong fix. We were instructed by ATC to fly heading 250 degrees to intercept the dxo 217 degree radial to annts. Upon intercepting the 217 degree radial of dxo; we discovered that annts was mis-spelled in the FMS as aants. The FMS was reprogrammed and we continued to our destination without further incident. After the incident we used CRM to discover what may have went wrong. We determined as a crew that even though we both verified the clearance while at the gate; we need to be more diligent to verify the fix was spelled completely accurate. Additionally we discovered that the fix aants is approximately 50 miles from dtw. These two fixes annts and aants are basically the same name and spelling all but of one letter difference. We believe this was the additional cause for this deviation. In our opinion to help prevent this from being a future occurrence one of the fixes should be re-named as they are close to the dtw area and can cause confusion to pilots and controllers.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An EMB145 flight crew departing DTW was cleared direct ANNTS intersection; but they entered AANTS in the FMC and ATC caught the track deviation. The flight crew suggested renaming one of the intersections since they are only 50 miles apart.

Narrative: We departed Runway 22L on a heading of 220 degrees assigned with the autopilot engaged. Upon reaching about 5;000 FT Detroit Departure cleared us direct to ANNTS intersection. The non-flying pilot commanded the FMS direct to the fix. As we began our turn to the left towards ANNTS the Departure Controller advised us of a traffic alert. The flying pilot immediately disengaged the autopilot and turned to heading 245 degrees and expedited climb through 10;000 up to 13;000 as ATC instructed. Once we were re-established the autopilot was re-engaged. ATC then advised once again to turn direct ANNTS. The non-flying pilot once again commanded the FMS direct to the fix ANNTS. As we made the turn left once again we received another traffic alert from ATC and were instructed to turn to a heading of 250 degrees. The Controller asked if we were going direct to ANNTS. We advised that we were. The Controller then advised we were not and must have the wrong fix. We were instructed by ATC to fly heading 250 degrees to intercept the DXO 217 degree radial to ANNTS. Upon intercepting the 217 degree radial of DXO; we discovered that ANNTS was mis-spelled in the FMS as AANTS. The FMS was reprogrammed and we continued to our destination without further incident. After the incident we used CRM to discover what may have went wrong. We determined as a crew that even though we both verified the clearance while at the gate; we need to be more diligent to verify the fix was spelled completely accurate. Additionally we discovered that the fix AANTS is approximately 50 miles from DTW. These two fixes ANNTS and AANTS are basically the same name and spelling all but of one letter difference. We believe this was the additional cause for this deviation. In our opinion to help prevent this from being a future occurrence one of the fixes should be re-named as they are close to the DTW area and can cause confusion to pilots and controllers.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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	833825
Time
Date	200905
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	DTW.Airport
State Reference	MI
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	EMB ERJ 145 ER&LR
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Climb Climb
Route In Use	Direct Vectors
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Not Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 169 Flight Crew Total 4050 Flight Crew Type 2500
Person 2
Function	Pilot Flying First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Instrument
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 120 Flight Crew Total 2300 Flight Crew Type 2100
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Track / Heading All Types

An EMB145 flight crew departing dtw was cleared direct annts intersection; but they entered aants in the FMC and ATC caught the track deviation. The flight crew suggested renaming one of the intersections since they are only 50 miles apart.