A319 flight crew discovered during the ONYON1 arrival to runway 8L at atl that that there are two fi...

Narrative:

On our way to atl; WX was forecast to be ok. About an hour out we got 'special' ATIS sure enough; rain and circuit breaker's. Assigned the onyon 1 RNAV arrival. Lot of WX over onyon; requested wx dev hdg 270; proceeded for a few miles to avoid WX; after three runway changes ATC finally says 'expect ILS 8L; proceed direct (schel) when able' very busy radio comms; responded 'direct schel'. We were now briefing the new approach; saw 'schel' was FAF for ILS 8L. Turned north to 'schel'; ATC says 'after schel rejoin the onyon arrival'. My first officer and I exchange a confusing stare and we realize that there is a fix on the onyon arrival called 'shele'. Can you believe this?? (Schel and shele) both pronounced the exact same way; and both on our arrival. Fortunately we caught it quick and there was no deviation. This is dangerous and could result in a real bad situation. They need to rename one of these fixes.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A319 flight crew discovered during the ONYON1 arrival to Runway 8L at ATL that that there are two fixes with very similar names. SHELE on the ONYON1 and SCHEL on the ILS 8L.

Narrative: On our way to ATL; WX was forecast to be OK. About an hour out we got 'special' ATIS sure enough; rain and CB's. Assigned the ONYON 1 RNAV ARR. Lot of WX over ONYON; requested wx dev hdg 270; proceeded for a few miles to avoid WX; After three RWY changes ATC finally says 'expect ILS 8L; proceed direct (SCHEL) when able' VERY busy radio comms; responded 'direct SCHEL'. We were now briefing the NEW approach; saw 'SCHEL' was FAF for ILS 8L. Turned North to 'SCHEL'; ATC says 'after SCHEL rejoin the ONYON ARRIVAL'. My FO and I exchange a confusing stare and we realize that there is a fix on the ONYON ARR called 'SHELE'. Can you believe this?? (SCHEL and SHELE) Both pronounced the EXACT same way; and both on our arrival. Fortunately we caught it quick and there was no deviation. This is dangerous and could result in a real bad situation. They need to rename one of these fixes.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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	1253035
Time
Date	201504
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ATL.Airport
State Reference	GA
Environment
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	A319
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Route In Use	Direct STAR ONYON1
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Person 2
Function	First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial
Events
Anomaly	No Specific Anomaly Occurred All Types

A319 flight crew discovered during the ONYON1 arrival to runway 8L at atl that that there are two fixes with very similar names. Shele on the ONYON1 and schel on the ILS 8L.