Corporate jet captain reported a descent on vectors that was meant for another aircraft.

Attributes
ACN	1477286
Time
Date	201708
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	PCT.TRACON
State Reference	VA
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Medium Transport Low Wing 2 Turbojet Eng
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Descent
Route In Use	Vectors
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

Narrative:

While descending via vectors for rmn; a descent clearance was issued to descend to 2000. The initial part of the transmission was blocked; but my first officer believed that it was for us. He read back the clearance and inserted that our north# was now cleared to 2000. I questioned him about the clearance and he insisted that he read back our call sign when responding to our clearance. At about 2300' the controlled asked what altitude were we descending to and the first officer responded that we were descending to 2000' as cleared. The controller said that clearance was for another aircraft. We asked what altitude he wanted us at and he said to just maintain 2000'. No other comments were made and shortly after that we were handed off to quantico approach.standard procedure in the cockpit for any clearance for a change in altitude is that the PIC confirms hearing the same clearance as the first officer before changing altitude. We deviated from that policy and should not have. Strict adherence to our altitude change procedure should be adhered to in the future.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Corporate Jet Captain reported a descent on vectors that was meant for another aircraft.

Narrative: While descending via vectors for RMN; a descent clearance was issued to descend to 2000. The initial part of the transmission was blocked; but my First Officer believed that it was for us. He read back the clearance and inserted that our N# was now cleared to 2000. I questioned him about the clearance and he insisted that he read back our call sign when responding to our clearance. At about 2300' the controlled asked what altitude were we descending to and the first officer responded that we were descending to 2000' as cleared. The controller said that clearance was for another aircraft. We asked what altitude he wanted us at and he said to just maintain 2000'. No other comments were made and shortly after that we were handed off to Quantico Approach.Standard procedure in the cockpit for any clearance for a change in altitude is that the PIC confirms hearing the same clearance as the first officer before changing altitude. We deviated from that policy and should not have. Strict adherence to our altitude change procedure should be adhered to in the future.

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.