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Two air carrier aircraft with similar call signs confused both the flight crews and ATC when clearances intended for one were accepted and read back by the other.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 934826 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201102 |
| Local Time Of Day | 0601-1200 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | SJC.Airport |
| State Reference | CA |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 121 |
| Flight Phase | Climb |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Aircraft 2 | |
| Make Model Name | Commercial Fixed Wing |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | First Officer |
| Experience | Flight Crew Last 90 Days 267 |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude Deviation - Procedural Clearance |
Narrative:
The san jose 9 departure was initially uneventful and we leveled off at fl 190 awaiting hand-off to the higher sector. After being level at fl 190 for a little while; we were handed off to oakland and received a clearance to climb and maintain fl 230 and to expedite up to fl 230. We acknowledged with a complete read back including the full call sign; altitudes; and the expedite request. As we were passing fl 200; another clearance was given to another aircraft to climb to fl 230 and this aircraft had a call sign that was very similar to ours. It was at this point that the pilots of both aircraft and the controller realized that we had confusion on which aircraft received the correct clearance. After a quick query on aircraft positions from the controller; both aircraft were correctly identified and we were told we had gotten the wrong clearance and were on the wrong oak frequency. We descended from fl 20.5 back to fl 190. After being given a new oakland frequency; we continued the remainder of the flight uneventfully. At no time were there any traffic conflicts.once both aircraft showed up on frequency; the confusion was obvious. There was lot of heavy rain and weather in the sector all morning and sjc just had switched from south flow to north flow so this may have also disrupted a normal flow.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: Two air carrier aircraft with similar call signs confused both the flight crews and ATC when clearances intended for one were accepted and read back by the other.
Narrative: The SAN JOSE 9 Departure was initially uneventful and we leveled off at FL 190 awaiting hand-off to the higher sector. After being level at FL 190 for a little while; we were handed off to Oakland and received a clearance to climb and maintain FL 230 and to expedite up to FL 230. We acknowledged with a complete read back including the full call sign; altitudes; and the expedite request. As we were passing FL 200; another clearance was given to another aircraft to climb to FL 230 and this aircraft had a call sign that was very similar to ours. It was at this point that the Pilots of both aircraft and the Controller realized that we had confusion on which aircraft received the correct clearance. After a quick query on aircraft positions from the Controller; both aircraft were correctly identified and we were told we had gotten the wrong clearance and were on the wrong OAK frequency. We descended from FL 20.5 back to FL 190. After being given a new Oakland frequency; we continued the remainder of the flight uneventfully. At no time were there any traffic conflicts.Once both aircraft showed up on frequency; the confusion was obvious. There was lot of heavy rain and weather in the sector all morning and SJC just had switched from south flow to north flow so this may have also disrupted a normal flow.
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.