C90 controller described a near loss of separation event when traffic was issued direct acito but pr...

Narrative:

Aircraft X departed runway 22 (left/right?) off mdw. The only competing traffic was an arrival far to the west descending to 5;000 and would have been a non-factor. I issued a climb to 120 and direct acito. A short time later I notice the aircraft taking a fairly drastic turn to the southeast in his climb; well away from acito. We asked to verify where he was turning and to spell the waypoint; to which he replied aceto. While it was never close; his turn definitely took him more in to the path of the arrival than intended. I had him climb through 6;000 without delay and got him back on course to acito. Recommendation; it appears aceto waypoint is the FAF for the RNAV (GPS) runway 6 approach at fft airport. The aircraft; per the strip; was issued an frc to cps. Assuming it was a verbal clearance; confirm the spelling of acito since it's a fairly critical initial departure fix. This would be very time consuming in the long run however; and only bandaids the issue. Probably more efficient and safe as a permanent fix would be to rename (and possibly retire) the aceto way point at fft since 1.) its spelling is close; 2.) pronunciation can be similar (especially since the pronunciation of acito is defined in the C90 SOP); and 3.) acito must be a much-more-heavily used fix since it apples to numerous chicago metro area departures on a daily basis.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: C90 Controller described a near loss of separation event when traffic was issued direct ACITO but programed ACETO for the turn; the reporter suggesting renaming the lessor used ACETO fix.

Narrative: Aircraft X departed Runway 22 (L/R?) off MDW. The only competing traffic was an arrival far to the west descending to 5;000 and would have been a non-factor. I issued a climb to 120 and direct ACITO. A short time later I notice the aircraft taking a fairly drastic turn to the southeast in his climb; well away from ACITO. We asked to verify where he was turning and to spell the waypoint; to which he replied ACETO. While it was never close; his turn definitely took him more in to the path of the arrival than intended. I had him climb through 6;000 without delay and got him back on course to ACITO. Recommendation; it appears ACETO waypoint is the FAF for the RNAV (GPS) Runway 6 approach at FFT airport. The aircraft; per the strip; was issued an FRC to CPS. Assuming it was a verbal clearance; confirm the spelling of ACITO since it's a fairly critical initial departure fix. This would be very time consuming in the long run however; and only bandaids the issue. Probably more efficient and safe as a permanent fix would be to rename (and possibly retire) the ACETO way point at FFT since 1.) Its spelling is close; 2.) Pronunciation can be similar (especially since the pronunciation of ACITO is defined in the C90 SOP); and 3.) ACITO must be a much-more-heavily used fix since it apples to numerous Chicago Metro Area departures on a daily basis.

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.

Attributes
ACN	933366
Time
Date	201102
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	C90.TRACON
State Reference	IL
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Challenger CL600
Flight Phase	Initial Climb
Route In Use	Vectors
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Approach Departure
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Developmental
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Track / Heading All Types

C90 controller described a near loss of separation event when traffic was issued direct acito but programed aceto for the turn; the reporter suggesting renaming the lessor used aceto fix.