An ERJ170 on the clt jacal 6 RNAV departure was cleared to gladi intersection but misunderstood and ...

Narrative:

We were initially cleared for take off by tower control to depart runway 23 from clt and fly the jacal 6 RNAV departure procedure. Shortly after checking in with departure control the controller gave us a 300 heading direct and cleared us direct to a fix. The captain and I were confused by the pronunciation of the fix; we thought to be vlady. I asked the controller to clarify and confirm direct to vlady; which she did. Shortly there after the controller stated that we were showing north of the fix and cleared us direct to jacal. Upon further investigation we determined the controller wanted us direct to gladi a fix on the departure procedure and not vlady a fix a little further down on our flight plan. Short cuts are great; but flying RNAV SID's as depicted allow pilots to fly what they brief. The controller was working another frequency at the time and was issuing an IFR clearance to an aircraft. The division of attention my have lead to the controller not fully hear my verbalization of vlady. Also having two fixes close to each other with similar names can lead to confusion and is not a good idea.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An ERJ170 on the CLT JACAL 6 RNAV departure was cleared to GLADI intersection but misunderstood and proceeded to VLADI intersection which was a more distant point on their flight plan. This was a similar sounding fix confusion.

Narrative: We were initially cleared for take off by Tower Control to depart Runway 23 from CLT and fly the JACAL 6 RNAV departure procedure. Shortly after checking in with Departure Control the Controller gave us a 300 heading direct and cleared us direct to a fix. The Captain and I were confused by the pronunciation of the fix; we thought to be VLADY. I asked the Controller to clarify and confirm direct to VLADY; which she did. Shortly there after the Controller stated that we were showing north of the fix and cleared us direct to JACAL. Upon further investigation we determined the Controller wanted us direct to GLADI a fix on the departure procedure and not VLADY a fix a little further down on our flight plan. Short cuts are great; but flying RNAV SID's as depicted allow pilots to fly what they brief. The Controller was working another frequency at the time and was issuing an IFR clearance to an aircraft. The division of attention my have lead to the Controller not fully hear my verbalization of VLADY. Also having two fixes close to each other with similar names can lead to confusion and is not a good idea.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 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	989331
Time
Date	201201
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	CLT.TRACON
State Reference	NC
Environment
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	EMB ERJ 170/175 ER/LR
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Climb Initial Climb
Route In Use	SID JACAL 6
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Not Flying
Person 2
Function	Pilot Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Total 4500 Flight Crew Type 1700
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Track / Heading All Types

An ERJ170 on the clt jacal 6 RNAV departure was cleared to gladi intersection but misunderstood and proceeded to vladi intersection which was a more distant point on their flight plan. This was a similar sounding fix confusion.