ZKC controller reported a departure on the CHIEF7 SID navigating to katts instead of the published S...

Attributes
ACN	1515707
Time
Date	201802
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZKC.ARTCC
State Reference	KS
Environment
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Medium Large Transport Low Wing 2 Turbojet Eng
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Climb
Route In Use	SID CHIEF7
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Enroute
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

Narrative:

Aircraft X was a mci departure enroute [westbound] and the aircraft was slightly off route. I asked the pilot what fix they were navigating towards and they told me they were issued direct catts. There was a pause and the pilot spelled the fix and said katts. The flight plan had both fixes; catts which is on the standard departure out of mci and used daily and the other fix katts which was much further down in the flight plan. The issue was resolved quickly and without incident. Recommend maybe a little more clarification from the pilot when two identical sounding fixes are in the flight plan to ensure that everyone is on the same page. Or a slight change in the spelling of fixes that are sounding identical.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZKC Controller reported a departure on the CHIEF7 SID navigating to KATTS instead of the published SID fix of CATTS. Both fixes are phonetically identical and very similar spelling.

Narrative: Aircraft X was a MCI departure enroute [westbound] and the aircraft was slightly off route. I asked the pilot what fix they were navigating towards and they told me they were issued direct CATTS. There was a pause and the pilot spelled the fix and said KATTS. The flight plan had both fixes; CATTS which is on the standard departure out of MCI and used daily and the other fix KATTS which was much further down in the flight plan. The issue was resolved quickly and without incident. Recommend maybe a little more clarification from the pilot when two identical sounding fixes are in the flight plan to ensure that everyone is on the same page. Or a slight change in the spelling of fixes that are sounding identical.

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.

ZKC controller reported a departure on the CHIEF7 SID navigating to katts instead of the published SID fix of catts. Both fixes are phonetically identical and very similar spelling.