Narrative:

I was sitting at darbs with scattered weather and then my supervisor came over to tell me that we needed fifteen in trail to tampa. About two minutes later I received a total of four tampa hand offs from all different directions and three were almost tied for the fix. I was trying to vector them around the weather and get some spacing; luckily I had immediately asked tampa if they would take them ten in trail on these few and they agreed but a lot of my attention was there. I also had a deviating over flight that was a boundary runner and an orlando arrival in that same area as the tampa aircraft that was adding to my attention. At some point while I was doing all of this; my supervisor came to tell me that we had fifteen in trail to orlando and that I had two and to slow the one near the tampa traffic down. He said he thought that might work just keep an eye on it. The second orlando on the right side of my sector was the air carrier; and I took the hand off. He was north of pie at 27;000 ft; 300 KTS or greater. When he checked in I descended him to FL250. The sector next to me had two departures climbing to FL240. At some point I switched one of the tampa arrivals to the approach frequency; it happened to be an air carrier X with a similar sounding call sign that I failed to catch; and then continued on. Right after the next call the tampa aircraft asked me to verify I want them on approach; I confirmed it. Once the orlando air carrier X was clear of traffic I told him to descend to FL210; he did not answer. I tried several times with no response. I then yelled to the supervisor almost right behind me that the aircraft was not responding and that he might be NORDO; next I called miami center next sector R07 to let them know he was level at FL250 and I was no longer talking to him. A few seconds later the aircraft started to descend; my initial reaction was that he heard me and I might have blocked the read back or he was stepped on. I tried calling him again; no answer; the r-side next to me suggested having him 'identify' that also failed. I believe my d-side or the r-side next to me called miami to let them know we were still not in contact with the airplane who at this point was descending through FL210 and we had no idea what he was doing. I do know that as the plane keep descending eventually into tampa's airspace; the r-side next to me called tampa to tell them about the aircraft. During all of this; I believe at one point I had a tracker but at the sector you have to use split mode and I don't remember ever doing that. Recommendation; looking back now and knowing what actually happened; I wish first of all that I had even realized that I had two air carrier aircraft whose call signs were similar. When the air carrier going into tampa asked [me] to verify the frequency change; that should have alerted me; especially when the NORDO aircraft a few moments later was the same company. I know now that I should have called tampa to ask if they had the aircraft; but I think at the time there was a lot of frequency congestion and people stepping on each other and I had people around me talking to me; I didn't think the tampa aircraft asking for verification was odd. I think I was so frustrated that all of a sudden I didn't know what was going on; did the plane hear me; is he having an emergency; why is he descending if he is NORDO. I felt like I had lost control and didn't know what to do. I think it was just a lack of experience not thinking to call tampa for an aircraft at FL250; and for missing the read back.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZJX Controller described a confused event involving two same company aircraft with different destinations; one accepting a frequency change for the other and the reporter not catching the error.

Narrative: I was sitting at Darbs with scattered weather and then my Supervisor came over to tell me that we needed fifteen in trail to Tampa. About two minutes later I received a total of four Tampa hand offs from all different directions and three were almost tied for the fix. I was trying to vector them around the weather and get some spacing; luckily I had immediately asked Tampa if they would take them ten in trail on these few and they agreed but a lot of my attention was there. I also had a deviating over flight that was a boundary runner and an Orlando arrival in that same area as the Tampa aircraft that was adding to my attention. At some point while I was doing all of this; my Supervisor came to tell me that we had fifteen in trail to Orlando and that I had two and to slow the one near the Tampa traffic down. He said he thought that might work just keep an eye on it. The second Orlando on the right side of my sector was the Air Carrier; and I took the hand off. He was north of PIE at 27;000 FT; 300 KTS or greater. When he checked in I descended him to FL250. The sector next to me had two departures climbing to FL240. At some point I switched one of the Tampa arrivals to the approach frequency; it happened to be an Air Carrier X with a similar sounding call sign that I failed to catch; and then continued on. Right after the next call the Tampa aircraft asked me to verify I want them on approach; I confirmed it. Once the Orlando Air Carrier X was clear of traffic I told him to descend to FL210; he did not answer. I tried several times with no response. I then yelled to the Supervisor almost right behind me that the aircraft was not responding and that he might be NORDO; next I called Miami Center next sector R07 to let them know he was level at FL250 and I was no longer talking to him. A few seconds later the aircraft started to descend; my initial reaction was that he heard me and I might have blocked the read back or he was stepped on. I tried calling him again; no answer; the R-side next to me suggested having him 'IDENT' that also failed. I believe my D-Side or the R-Side next to me called Miami to let them know we were still not in contact with the airplane who at this point was descending through FL210 and we had no idea what he was doing. I do know that as the plane keep descending eventually into Tampa's airspace; the R-Side next to me called Tampa to tell them about the aircraft. During all of this; I believe at one point I had a tracker but at the sector you have to use split mode and I don't remember ever doing that. Recommendation; looking back now and knowing what actually happened; I wish first of all that I had even realized that I had two Air Carrier aircraft whose call signs were similar. When the Air Carrier going into Tampa asked [me] to verify the frequency change; that should have alerted me; especially when the NORDO aircraft a few moments later was the same company. I know now that I should have called Tampa to ask if they had the aircraft; but I think at the time there was a lot of frequency congestion and people stepping on each other and I had people around me talking to me; I didn't think the Tampa aircraft asking for verification was odd. I think I was so frustrated that all of a sudden I didn't know what was going on; did the plane hear me; is he having an emergency; why is he descending if he is NORDO. I felt like I had lost control and didn't know what to do. I think it was just a lack of experience not thinking to call Tampa for an aircraft at FL250; and for missing the read back.

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.