Air carrier departure from aex was issued an unexpected turn for traffic; the direction of the turn ...

Narrative:

Aex; runway 32; pilots and tower controller. Received a take off clearance with a heading 180 degree instruction that was very unusual for direction of flight. We were heading east; and always received some heading north-by-northeast. Flight crew queried heading instruction and was told by ATC; heading 180 degrees was for traffic in the area. First officer read back: 'aircraft X; cleared for take off; runway 32; fly heading 180 degrees; climb and maintain 10;000 ft.' tower did not correct the read back. I think tower responded affirmative; giving us the mindset; that a right turn to heading 180 was correct. Departure provided vectors for and a clearance to proceed enroute. Departure then asked us to call them once we landed. We were told the take off clearance was to make a left hand turn; not a right hand turn on course. Cause; the left turn was a turn away from our intended departure direction. This was very unusual for aex. Suggestions; 1. Flight crew to be provided with direction of other traffic; to put us in the situational awareness loop; i.e. 'Traffic northeast; on departure; turn left heading 180. 2. Controller catching and/or requiring; or expecting left/right read back due to unusual direction of turn. 3. Controller in tower seeing us on his scope turning the wrong direction; and correcting if able. 4. PNF reading back left turn 180 or right turn 180. 5. When controller heard read back of heading 180 from PNF; to query and ascertain intentions were to turn in the correct direction.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air Carrier departure from AEX was issued an unexpected turn for traffic; the direction of the turn not clarified resulting a possible airspace incursion.

Narrative: AEX; Runway 32; pilots and tower controller. Received a take off clearance with a heading 180 degree instruction that was very unusual for direction of flight. We were heading East; and always received some heading North-by-Northeast. Flight crew queried heading instruction and was told by ATC; heading 180 degrees was for traffic in the area. First Officer read back: 'Aircraft X; cleared for take off; Runway 32; fly heading 180 degrees; climb and maintain 10;000 ft.' Tower did not correct the read back. I think tower responded affirmative; giving us the mindset; that a right turn to heading 180 was correct. Departure provided vectors for and a clearance to proceed Enroute. Departure then asked us to call them once we landed. We were told the take off clearance was to make a left hand turn; not a right hand turn on course. Cause; the left turn was a turn away from our intended departure direction. This was very unusual for AEX. Suggestions; 1. Flight crew to be provided with direction of other traffic; to put us in the situational awareness loop; i.e. 'Traffic Northeast; on departure; turn left heading 180. 2. Controller catching and/or requiring; or expecting left/right read back due to unusual direction of turn. 3. Controller in tower seeing us on his scope turning the wrong direction; and correcting if able. 4. PNF reading back left turn 180 or right turn 180. 5. When controller heard read back of heading 180 from PNF; to query and ascertain intentions were to turn in the correct direction.

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	976989
Time
Date	201110
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	AEX.Tower
State Reference	LA
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	MD-80 Series (DC-9-80) Undifferentiated or Other Model
Flight Phase	Climb Initial Climb
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Not Flying
Person 2
Function	Pilot Flying Captain
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Track / Heading All Types

Air carrier departure from aex was issued an unexpected turn for traffic; the direction of the turn not clarified resulting a possible airspace incursion.