Narrative:

We were filed on the vtu 5 departure out of lax due to noise restrictions in the morning. I took the clearance from the pre departure clearance; and thought it had changed us from the casta 2 to the vtu 5; which made sense; since it agreed with the release. The first officer reviewed the clearance as well during the clearance briefing; and also saw what I saw. We were in full agreement that the FMC was programmed for the correct departure (vtu 5). Once airborne we contacted socal and were directed to a different frequency than the one assigned by the pre departure clearance. We thought it was probably because more people came on in the morning and they opened another position. She asked us to confirm we were flying the casta 2 SID. I stated we were on the vtu 5 SID. She gave us vectors after that until we were joined up with our routing. Once we were on our way; we reviewed the pre departure clearance message on the ACARS and then saw that we had been changed from the vtu 5 to the casta 2; not the other way around. I had misread the clearance initially; and the first officer agreed with my interpretation. This was my fault entirely. The pre departure clearance message should only contain your clearance. Period! It should not contain what you had filed and your clearance. Give us a chance to not screw this up. It seems like a pretty simple fix. Just tell us how we are cleared; not all the other options and expect us to catch it. I am not blaming this on the ACARS. I was well trained in its use; and we did not rush through the departure briefing. We still screwed it up. ACARS could make it easier by telling us what we are cleared for and nothing more.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An air carrier Captain reported both he and his First Officer misinterpreted a PDC clearance and flew the wrong departure out of LAX.

Narrative: We were filed on the VTU 5 Departure out of LAX due to noise restrictions in the morning. I took the clearance from the PDC; and thought it had changed us from the CASTA 2 to the VTU 5; which made sense; since it agreed with the Release. The First Officer reviewed the clearance as well during the clearance briefing; and also saw what I saw. We were in full agreement that the FMC was programmed for the correct departure (VTU 5). Once airborne we contacted SoCal and were directed to a different frequency than the one assigned by the PDC. We thought it was probably because more people came on in the morning and they opened another position. She asked us to confirm we were flying the CASTA 2 SID. I stated we were on the VTU 5 SID. She gave us vectors after that until we were joined up with our routing. Once we were on our way; we reviewed the PDC message on the ACARS and then saw that we had been changed from the VTU 5 to the CASTA 2; not the other way around. I had misread the clearance initially; and the First Officer agreed with my interpretation. This was my fault entirely. The PDC message should only contain your clearance. Period! It should not contain what you had filed and your clearance. Give us a chance to not screw this up. It seems like a pretty simple fix. Just tell us how we are cleared; not all the other options and expect us to catch it. I am not blaming this on the ACARS. I was well trained in its use; and we did not rush through the departure briefing. We still screwed it up. ACARS could make it easier by telling us what we are cleared for and nothing more.

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.