Narrative:

I was working the melbourne low sector (R4). This sector owns only from five thousand to nine thousand feet. Below it is the vero beach terminal sector (R3); and on top the bairn/stoop sectors (R22/R23) which are mostly combined. [We had] aircraft X that was being worked by the bairn/stoop sector en route to ksfb (sanford international). His route was as follows: vrb..bairn.GOOFY5.ksfb. This route is correct and in accordance with the LOA between ZMA and F11. As a prop aircraft; aircraft X has to cross bairn at five thousand feet to enter F11's airspace. The bairn/stoop sector handed off aircraft X descending to one zero thousand in order for me to give him the crossing restriction at bairn. I had traffic at eight thousand therefore only gave aircraft X an initial descent to nine thousand. As he got closer to vrb I gave him a descent clearance to seven thousand then to cross bairn at five thousand. The aircraft was still descending out of about one two thousand when he reached vrb and at that point turned due north; as opposed to bairn which is north west of vrb which would have been pretty much a straight line on his previous track. As aircraft X turned north I advised the bairn/stoop sector and they did not have any conflicting traffic. I advised the pilot about the situation and he then proceeded to make the correction and turn to bairn intersection which is part of the Goofy5 arrival. At this point I knew what had happened because it is not the first time we have encountered this situation; but I asked the pilot and he confirmed what the problem was. The problem is that there is a fix in virginia or maryland that is spelled barin as opposed to bairn. As you might understand it is not far fetched for a pilot to make a mistake while typing this fixes into their navigation system. It is not the first time that this has happened in this sector as it mostly deals with recreational pilots and lighter aircraft with less sophisticated navigation systems and less experience; but nonetheless we have occasionally encountered the same situation with professional pilots and air carriers. Recommendation; I would recommend that these fixes be renamed. It is a problem that we encounter often and can produce a very unsafe situation. There are many fixes even in our area's airspace that sound so much alike that it is very hard for pilots to distinguish.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZMA Controller described an aircraft wrong turn event; claiming the BARIN and BAIRN intersections are sometimes confused and lead to incorrect turns.

Narrative: I was working the Melbourne Low Sector (R4). This sector owns only from five thousand to nine thousand feet. Below it is the Vero Beach Terminal Sector (R3); and on top the Bairn/Stoop Sectors (R22/R23) which are mostly combined. [We had] Aircraft X that was being worked by the Bairn/Stoop Sector en route to KSFB (Sanford International). His route was as follows: VRB..BAIRN.GOOFY5.KSFB. This route is correct and in accordance with the LOA between ZMA and F11. As a prop aircraft; Aircraft X has to cross Bairn at five thousand feet to enter F11's airspace. The Bairn/Stoop Sector handed off Aircraft X descending to one zero thousand in order for me to give him the crossing restriction at Bairn. I had traffic at eight thousand therefore only gave Aircraft X an initial descent to nine thousand. As he got closer to VRB I gave him a descent clearance to seven thousand then to cross Bairn at five thousand. The aircraft was still descending out of about one two thousand when he reached VRB and at that point turned due north; as opposed to Bairn which is north west of VRB which would have been pretty much a straight line on his previous track. As Aircraft X turned north I advised the Bairn/Stoop Sector and they did not have any conflicting traffic. I advised the pilot about the situation and he then proceeded to make the correction and turn to Bairn Intersection which is part of the Goofy5 arrival. At this point I knew what had happened because it is not the first time we have encountered this situation; but I asked the pilot and he confirmed what the problem was. The problem is that there is a fix in Virginia or Maryland that is spelled BARIN as opposed to BAIRN. As you might understand it is not far fetched for a pilot to make a mistake while typing this fixes into their navigation system. It is not the first time that this has happened in this sector as it mostly deals with recreational pilots and lighter aircraft with less sophisticated navigation systems and less experience; but nonetheless we have occasionally encountered the same situation with professional pilots and air carriers. Recommendation; I would recommend that these fixes be renamed. It is a problem that we encounter often and can produce a very unsafe situation. There are many fixes even in our area's airspace that sound so much alike that it is very hard for pilots to distinguish.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.