Narrative:

The incorrect arrival to clt was entered into the FMS during our preflight duties. We arrived early and had a few minutes to relax then complete our preflight duties; we were unhurried. After receiving our clearance and during my release briefing I make a point of reading the clearance after having verified it. In this case we had been cleared for the Sudsy3 but the first officer had entered the MAGIC1. The clearance was vectors to magic; etc. I think we both had that in our heads (i.e. Magic the waypoint = magic the arrival) during the review of the clearance. The two arrivals also share the same waypoints; however; the MAGIC1 terminates with vectors from gizmo whereas the SUDSY3 has a turn towards the south and a few more waypoints essentially paralleling 36R. The crossing restriction at magic is also the same. The most recent controller had given us the crossing restriction at magic; and he may have given us the magic or the sudsy arrival; I don't remember. Everything seemed normal; then ATC gave us a 160 heading which seemed odd to me. Almost simultaneously; the first officer referenced the FMS and said he'd entered the incorrect arrival. He corrected the arrival. ATC gave us another heading and descent instructions (we were at 9000) to 6000. I observed our position referenced to the corrected arrival and we were within 2-3 miles as I recall. ATC never queried us about what arrival we were on; nor did they indicate there was any problem. The flight concluded uneventfully.I have done the preflight activities many times. The only thing I can think of is that we were tired (we were). We had a schedule that had us starting early for two days then starting and ending late the last day. I don't understand why these types of schedules seem the norm; there's no way to adapt to them. I had slept fairly well the night before but woke up early as I had the previous two days. I went back to bed and took a nap trying to get as much sleep as late as I could. Despite this we still missed an obvious mistake. The most disturbing part is I didn't feel that I was overly tired or unfit to fly (ie 'fatigued'). While this particular event is not particularly alarming; I think in the bigger picture the airline needs to really think about the choices it's making about the consideration of human factors versus economics and the consequences if they don't choose correctly.

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An air carrier First Officer erroneously entered the CLT MAJIC1 arrival in the FMS; which shares common way points with the cleared SUDSY3 arrival. ATC issued a vector where upon the crew found their error and returned to the assigned routing.

Narrative: The incorrect arrival to CLT was entered into the FMS during our preflight duties. We arrived early and had a few minutes to relax then complete our preflight duties; we were unhurried. After receiving our clearance and during my release briefing I make a point of reading the clearance after having verified it. In this case we had been cleared for the Sudsy3 but the First Officer had entered the MAGIC1. The clearance was vectors to MAGIC; etc. I think we both had that in our heads (i.e. MAGIC the waypoint = MAGIC the arrival) during the review of the clearance. The two arrivals also share the same waypoints; however; the MAGIC1 terminates with vectors from GIZMO whereas the SUDSY3 has a turn towards the south and a few more waypoints essentially paralleling 36R. The crossing restriction at MAGIC is also the same. The most recent Controller had given us the crossing restriction at MAGIC; and he may have given us the MAGIC or the Sudsy arrival; I don't remember. Everything seemed normal; then ATC gave us a 160 heading which seemed odd to me. Almost simultaneously; the First Officer referenced the FMS and said he'd entered the incorrect arrival. He corrected the arrival. ATC gave us another heading and descent instructions (we were at 9000) to 6000. I observed our position referenced to the corrected arrival and we were within 2-3 miles as I recall. ATC never queried us about what arrival we were on; nor did they indicate there was any problem. The flight concluded uneventfully.I have done the preflight activities many times. The only thing I can think of is that we were tired (we were). We had a schedule that had us starting early for two days then starting and ending late the last day. I don't understand why these types of schedules seem the norm; there's no way to adapt to them. I had slept fairly well the night before but woke up early as I had the previous two days. I went back to bed and took a nap trying to get as much sleep as late as I could. Despite this we still missed an obvious mistake. The most disturbing part is I didn't feel that I was overly tired or unfit to fly (ie 'fatigued'). While this particular event is not particularly alarming; I think in the bigger picture the airline needs to really think about the choices it's making about the consideration of human factors versus economics and the consequences if they don't choose correctly.

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.