Two flights, one call sign: ATC resolves dangerous situation in Phoenix | Flightradar24 Blog

16 Responses

1. Never been able to understand why the westbound flight has the same number as the eastbound flight.

2. Isn’t it simple?
   2482 TO Phoenix
   2483 FROM Phoenix
   Surely this could have been foreseen?
   British Airways (and others) have forever used different numbers (by a single digit) for return flights on the reverse leg.
   Yes it’s simple, or it should be (doh!)

   1. Agreed. American is foolish for using the same flight number for inbound and outbound flights to the same city. I have seen this before in my own travel experience, so this is not the first time American has done this. It is more common than you might think. American is asking for trouble if they continue this policy. They ABSOLUTELY never use the same flight number for inbound and outbound flights on the same city pair.

3. Kudos (and a salary raise) to the ATC guy!

4. If Speedbird is British Airways’ call sign, what are some other names used for call signs, different from the usual airline name? Kiwi for Air New Zealand, perhaps?

   2. Some interesting ones: “Springbok” for South African Airways, “Go Cat” for the now-defunct Tiger Airways, “Giant” for Atlas Air, “Connie” for Kalitta Air, “Red Nose” for Norwegian and “I Fly” for IndiGo, the airline I fly for 🙂

5. Two flights should not have the same number on the same day, so one of these fights was 2482/13 and the other, 2482/14. Maybe this was an AA scheduling error, Dispatch computer error, or one of the flights delayed over the date change that should have been noticed prior to the discrepancy into and out of the same station. If one of the flights was an extra section on the same day, the flight number should have indicated that. Air traffic control handled it as best they could to avoid confusion.

   1. Why not simply? one is AA2482, the other AA2483.

6. 2 flight with the same callsign may happen but coming from the very same airline is quite ununderstable. Someone in the airline must be responsible for that mishap.

7. Just astonished that with todays’ technologies ( and here diesn’t require anything do sophisticated) something like this can happen with such a level of flight safety implications

8. In Australia our aircraft use the flight number which is always different for inbound and outbound flights, except when the same flight number flight continues on to another airport. There is no chance of another aircraft having the same flight number as every flight has a different number. GA use the registration number.

9. Why US airlines did not yet adopt those changes ? Others did ?

10. Seems to me the airline control system shouldn’t allow a duplicate active call sign.

11. Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
    In Europe EUROCONTROL is using a special tool to avoid “Callsign Confusion”.
    This tool is called “Call sign similarity tool” and it helps to deconflict or eliminate similar call signs within a single aircraft operator’s (AOs) schedule prior to the start of the summer and winter season.

12. Aer Lingus has been naming their aircraft for years. I don’t know if they use the aircraft’s name when in proximity to another with the same flight number, but, it might be something to think about