Controller Averts Possible Collision of Two Flight 2482s
Controller Averts Possible Collision of Two Flight 2482s
The News
A Phoenix air traffic controller caught two American Airlines jets flying under the same flight number shortly after midnight Friday and kept them apart before they could converge.
Both planes were calling themselves American 2482 on the same radio frequency — one arriving from Chicago, the other having just taken off from Phoenix.
Had either crew taken the other's altitude instruction as its own, the two jets could have collided, according to the Associated Press account of the incident.
"I've been working air traffic for 25 years. I've never seen two aircraft pretty much merge with the same call sign. That's pretty incredible," the controller said after the departing jet cleared the area.
Timeline
Flight 2482 is a round-trip route that runs back and forth between Chicago and Phoenix, normally with the same aircraft. The Chicago leg was delayed by weather, so American found a second plane in Phoenix and sent that flight out on time — putting two jets with the same number in the air at once.
The arriving jet and the departing jet end up in the same Phoenix airspace, both answering to "American 2482." Audio of the exchange was posted by ATC.com.
The controller starts addressing them as "American 2482 on the arrival" and "American 2482 on the departure." He keeps the arriving plane above the departing plane as their flight paths converge, tells the departing jet not to climb too high, and confirms both crews have each other in sight while they are still miles apart.
"It could have been disastrous, but I'm glad it worked out," the controller said. Both flights continued and landed safely.
Reactions
American Airlines said the system worked. "The diligence and professionalism of air traffic controllers and our pilots ensured required separation was always maintained and the issue was identified and addressed. Both flights continued safely and without incident," the airline said in a statement.
Aviation safety expert Steve Arroyo told the AP that someone in the airline's dispatch center likely failed to catch that both planes would be airborne at the same time with identical flight numbers, with the dispatcher and the pilots signing off on the flight plan anyway.
"You can drop the ball and that shouldn't happen, but it's nice to see that the system is resilient and we have all the safeguards," said Arroyo, who spent four decades at United Airlines — starting as a dispatcher before becoming a pilot — and says he has seen this kind of duplicate-call-sign problem only a couple of times.
What's Next
The Federal Aviation Administration and American Airlines will investigate how two flights ended up sharing a number in the same airspace. Both said they were glad everyone stayed safe.
No injuries, damage or diversions were reported, and no enforcement action has been announced.
More
Call signs are how controllers tell one aircraft from another by voice. Two jets answering to the same one on the same frequency removes that basic safeguard: an instruction meant for one plane can be read back and flown by the other. In this case the controller's fix was verbal — adding "on the arrival" and "on the departure" to every transmission — plus vertical separation, keeping the inbound jet above the outbound one and capping the departing plane's climb.
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