and why it shouldn’t happen….
Just after midnight on 13 August, 2 American Airlines flights with the same callsign were on the same frequency near PHX. The B737-800s had both been assigned AA2482. One aircraft, reg N925AN, operating PHX-ORD. The other, reg N946NN, operating ORD-PHX.
N925AN was climbing out of runway 07L at PHX, cleared to climb to FL090. N946NN descending towards PHX, cleared down to FL100. On crossing trajectories when the departing aircraft reported on frequency that they were climbing to FL090. ATC cleared that aircraft to maintain FL090, then spotted the other aircraft with the same callsign. Here’s the ATC conversation:
ATC: “American 2482, American 2482 on the arrival, American 2482 if you are on the arrival, I need you to maintain 10,000 feet!”
N946NN: “10,000 for American 2482 on arrival”
ATC: “And there is an American 2482, a 737, on the departure, is that correct?”
N925AN: “Correct, climbing to 9000”
ATC: “American 2482 on departure, I need you to maintain 9000, traffic at 1 o’clock in 10nm, is your company, same callsign, descending 11800 for 10000”
N925AN: Incredible, we are looking, thank you, in sight actually, American 2482 on departure”
The aircraft crossed each other shortly after, the departing maintaining FL090, the arriving still descending to FL100. Subsequently, both flights continued to their destinations without further incidents.
Later, the Controller said “I’ve been working air traffic for 25 years. I’ve never seen two aircraft pretty much merge with the same callsign. That’s pretty incredible”.
The arriving crew praised the Controller. The FAA and airline are investigating.
So, how could this have happened?
One theory, with information taken from a tracker homepage, this flight number is used every day for ORD-PHX flights, normally using the same aircraft in both directions. It seems that the inbound to PHX was delayed by almost 2 hours. American may gave decided not to wait but use another aircraft to preserve passengers’ onward connections. However, in other parts of the world, the process is to assign separate flight numbers even on “return” flights. Another contributor on the AVHerald site, could not work out how the various systems involved could cope with multiple routes and aircraft on the same day, all having the same flight number. The question remains, why did American feel the need to use the same flight number for 2 different flights? There’s a choice of 10,000 numbers (or 5,000 with the convention of ending with an odd or even digit). Looks like the airline will need to operate a different system in future.
As a side issue, why is a flight number generally not used as the callsign?
With the vast number of commercial flights operating worldwide, confusion could arise with ATC to Aircraft transmissions. Looking at FR24’s screen, let’s take an example of what was in the sky around BHX (my home airport) at 1505 on Saturday 15 August. Outbound EXS17NY to FUE. The flight number assigned by Jet2 being LS1229. Inbound from AGP was RYR3MP, Ryanair flight number FR2157. Both callsigns bearing no resemblance to the actual flight numbers. However, the callsign for EXS17NY is Channex17NY; going back to when the company started as Channel Express. Keeping things simple, RYR3MP is Ryanair3MP.
Around the world, callsigns vary. Many are straightforward with airlines like Emirates and Qantas staying with the company name. There are others, as Jet2 mentioned above, that use historic names. Sunclass, formerly Thomas Cook Scandinavia, utilises Viking. Of course, the best-known being BA and its Speedbird callsign.
In other news –
Loganair – the UK domestic carrier is closing its DND and SOU bases. It had already announced that DND-LHR would cease at the end of September.
Air Baltic – seen as the rising star amongst European airlines, the carrier has abandoned its plans to have a fleet of 100 A220-300 aircraft. They are now embarking on reduction to around 40. It’s not clear whether this is in anticipation of Airbus building the A220-500, or a cost-cutting exercise.
FNC – 11 August saw a first at this airport, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia B787-8 BBJ. Reg HZ-HM4. Arriving from FAO, it performed an initial first-time landing. Then further take-offs and landings, where the flight crew were rotated. This was preparation for a reported visit by the Crown Prince on 13 August. However, it was cancelled for personal security reasons. Media reports offered different theories. The YouTube spotting channels adding their own speculation that due to the compact size of the airport, the high-profile visitors were easy kidnapping targets.
And finally –
LHR – interesting theory put forward recently by a live stream visitor. As the aircraft were taxiing, the pilots were watching themselves on the channel. As was very tactfully pointed out, they’re far too busy to even think about whether someone is filming them….
Information courtesy of The Aviation Herald, Twitter/X, Madeira Airport Spotting, Airplane Video Guy
Images courtesy of One Mile at a Time, Madeira Island News
©TPSC, LadyJet2, information and photo/diagram suppliers