A wide body flight crew suffered a track deviation when all three pilots misunderstood an approach c...

Attributes
ACN	881134
Time
Date	201003
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.TRACON
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Commercial Fixed Wing
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Route In Use	Vectors
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Headset
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 20 Flight Crew Total 7500 Flight Crew Type 1000
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Track / Heading All Types

Narrative:

Approaching XXX. Received clearance to turn to 020 and intercept the localizer for runway xxl. I did not hear the full clearance. The pilot not flying read back; turn to 020 and intercept the localizer for xxl. There was a fleet qualified pilot in the observer seat and on a headset. About 2 miles after turning to 020; approach asked if we turned prior to XXX? We answered in the affirmative. They then turned us to 050 to avoid restricted airspace. Abeam XXX they cleared us to xxxxx and to intercept the localizer for xxl. Based on the correction by ATC; I assumed the original clearance was turn to 020 after XXX and intercept the xxl localizer. There didn't appear to be any other aircraft around us at the time. I should have received confirmation of the clearance from ATC. Contributing factor was the headsets available on the airplane. It appears the company is replacing the single earpiece boom microphones with dual earpiece headsets; similar to what is used in the simulator. The headsets make communications with ATC and other crewmembers difficult.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A wide body flight crew suffered a track deviation when all three pilots misunderstood an approach clearance.

Narrative: Approaching XXX. Received clearance to turn to 020 and intercept the localizer for Runway XXL. I did not hear the full clearance. The pilot not flying read back; turn to 020 and intercept the localizer for XXL. There was a fleet qualified pilot in the observer seat and on a headset. About 2 miles after turning to 020; approach asked if we turned prior to XXX? We answered in the affirmative. They then turned us to 050 to avoid restricted airspace. Abeam XXX they cleared us to XXXXX and to intercept the localizer for XXL. Based on the correction by ATC; I assumed the original clearance was turn to 020 after XXX and intercept the XXL localizer. There didn't appear to be any other aircraft around us at the time. I should have received confirmation of the clearance from ATC. Contributing factor was the headsets available on the airplane. It appears the company is replacing the single earpiece boom microphones with dual earpiece headsets; similar to what is used in the simulator. The headsets make communications with ATC and other crewmembers difficult.

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.