Narrative:

We were dealing with an MEL and a maintenance issue. The aircraft was late in and out. Logbook was completed improperly (pagination). The clearance was a non-standard one for the city-pair. In this case; the route matched the pre departure clearance clearance; but I did not watch the programming and failed to step through each individual waypoint. Somehow the FMC dropped five waypoints on the STAR and this took us a bit east rather than proceeding on the arrival. ATC asked where we were when we checked in and he informed us of our navigational error. We acknowledged the error and asked what he wanted us to do. He said continue as we were. Other than stepping through each individual leg; I don't know how to prevent this. We were much further out than I would normally be to begin the arrival briefing although we should have started it before we proceeded onto the STAR as per the fom. I am normally very vigilant in matching clearance to route to pre departure clearance. In this case; the final point on the SID was also the first point on the STAR. Technically the arrival briefing should have begun prior to that point and the error would have been caught in the FMC. I think the biggest error on my part was to rush leaving and not perform the arrival brief in a timely manner. I simply have to be more vigilant but slow down before departing to ensure all is in order to proceed.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737-300 flight crew track deviation due to disparity between clearance and FMC arrival routing.

Narrative: We were dealing with an MEL and a maintenance issue. The aircraft was late in and out. Logbook was completed improperly (pagination). The clearance was a non-standard one for the city-pair. In this case; the route matched the PDC clearance; but I did not watch the programming and failed to step through each individual waypoint. Somehow the FMC dropped five waypoints on the STAR and this took us a bit east rather than proceeding on the arrival. ATC asked where we were when we checked in and he informed us of our navigational error. We acknowledged the error and asked what he wanted us to do. He said continue as we were. Other than stepping through each individual leg; I don't know how to prevent this. We were much further out than I would normally be to begin the arrival briefing although we should have started it before we proceeded onto the STAR as per the FOM. I am normally very vigilant in matching clearance to route to PDC. In this case; the final point on the SID was also the first point on the STAR. Technically the arrival briefing should have begun prior to that point and the error would have been caught in the FMC. I think the biggest error on my part was to rush leaving and not perform the arrival brief in a timely manner. I simply have to be more vigilant but slow down before departing to ensure all is in order to proceed.

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.