A B737-700 crew encounter wake turbulence on the lax seavu two arrival and because the upset distrac...

Narrative:

While on the seavu two into lax we encounter wake turbulence from an aircraft that was ahead of us. The autopilot was disengaged to right the aircraft. At this time ATC gave us our approach clearance. We heard that we had been cleared for the seavu two arrival to intercept the 25L localizer and cleared for the approach. We were then told to change frequencies. The next controller asked which localizer we were tracking. We told him 25L. He told us we were supposed to be on 24R. He then told us to turn right 10 degrees and intercept the 24R localizer and cleared for the approach. There were no other problems with the approach. We preplanned to fly the arrival to 25L off of the seavu arrival. We encountered the wake turbulence just as we received our approach clearance. We were also fatigued from flying the flight to lax. We were also delayed due to last minute maintenance item that had come up just before our push off the gate. This combined with the wake turbulence acting as a distraction at the time the clearance for the approach was given lead to the incorrect approach being flown. Two things can be done to prevent this from occurring in the future. 1. If wake turbulence or any other type of distraction happens when a critical clearance is give the distraction should be stated to the controller and a request for clarification of the clearance should be obtained. 2. Socal approach can be asked to give the arrivals a heads up on which runway they can expect to be give before clearing the aircraft for its approach. We have already been given the STAR into the airport but not the runway. If they could give us the runway to expect earlier it would reduce the chances of error during the high workload phase of flight

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B737-700 crew encounter wake turbulence on the LAX SEAVU TWO ARRIVAL and because the upset distraction and fatigue failed to transition to Runway 24R from the preplanned Runway 25L arrival.

Narrative: While on the SEAVU TWO into LAX we encounter wake turbulence from an aircraft that was ahead of us. The autopilot was disengaged to right the aircraft. At this time ATC gave us our approach clearance. We heard that we had been cleared for the SEAVU TWO ARRIVAL to intercept the 25L localizer and cleared for the approach. We were then told to change frequencies. The next controller asked which localizer we were tracking. We told him 25L. He told us we were supposed to be on 24R. He then told us to turn right 10 degrees and intercept the 24R localizer and cleared for the approach. There were no other problems with the approach. We preplanned to fly the arrival to 25L off of the SEAVU ARRIVAL. We encountered the wake turbulence just as we received our approach clearance. We were also fatigued from flying the flight to LAX. We were also delayed due to last minute maintenance item that had come up just before our push off the gate. This combined with the wake turbulence acting as a distraction at the time the clearance for the approach was given lead to the incorrect approach being flown. Two things can be done to prevent this from occurring in the future. 1. If wake turbulence or any other type of distraction happens when a critical clearance is give the distraction should be stated to the controller and a request for clarification of the clearance should be obtained. 2. SOCAL approach can be asked to give the arrivals a heads up on which runway they can expect to be give before clearing the aircraft for its approach. We have already been given the STAR into the airport but not the runway. If they could give us the runway to expect earlier it would reduce the chances of error during the high workload phase of flight

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	838082
Time
Date	200905
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	LAX.Airport
State Reference	CA
Environment
Flight Conditions	IMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737-700
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Route In Use	STAR SEAVU
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Flying
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Track / Heading All Types Inflight Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control Inflight Event / Encounter Wake Vortex Encounter

A B737-700 crew encounter wake turbulence on the lax seavu two arrival and because the upset distraction and fatigue failed to transition to runway 24R from the preplanned runway 25L arrival.