A potential aviation disaster was narrowly averted on Friday after a United States air traffic controller identified that two American Airlines planes were mistakenly flying with the same flight number.
The incident took place shortly after midnight Friday, when one plane with the number American 2482 was scheduled to arrive for Chicago and another flight, with the same number, was expected to take off in Phoenix within the same time frame, the Associated Press reported.
The controller from Phoenix acted quickly to avoid confusion and kept the two flights a safe distance apart, finding a solution to ensure that both planes understood directions and maintained proper separation.
How did the US controller manage to keep the two flights separate?
An audio of the incident, posted by ATC.com, clarifies how the controller found a solution to ensure the planes maintained distance. Owing to the short time frame in which one was scheduled to arrive and the other to depart, if both pilots thought the controller was telling them to fly at the same altitude as they headed toward each other, a mid-air collision was possible, according to the AP report.
{{/usCountry}}An audio of the incident, posted by ATC.com, clarifies how the controller found a solution to ensure the planes maintained distance. Owing to the short time frame in which one was scheduled to arrive and the other to depart, if both pilots thought the controller was telling them to fly at the same altitude as they headed toward each other, a mid-air collision was possible, according to the AP report.
{{/usCountry}}Therefore, it was crucial for pilots of both planes to know which flight the controller was directing. The controller, showing quick thinking, started referring to “American 2482 on the arrival” and “American 2482 on the departure” to keep the two planes straight.
With this, the controller kept the arriving plane at a safe distance above the departing plane, even though their flight paths converged. The controller further made sure that both pilots also saw each other when they were still miles apart. He directed the departing plane not to climb too high, to keep a gap between both flights, AP reported.
Why were two flights flying with the same number?
Flight 2482 is a round-trip route that often flies back and forth between Chicago and Phoenix. Usually, the same plane goes back and forth, but given that the flight out of Chicago was delayed due to weather, American Airlines brought in a second plane in Phoenix and that flight left on time.
However, it resulted in two planes briefly sharing the same airspace before the arriving flight landed. An expert said the airline must have missed that the flights would overlap. “You can drop the ball and that shouldn’t happen, but it’s nice to see that the system is resilient and we have all the safeguards,” AP cited aviation safety expert Steve Arroyo as saying. Arroyo said it is likely that someone inside the airline’s dispatch center failed to catch that both planes would be in the air at the same time with identical flight numbers when the dispatcher and pilots were signing off on the plan.
The expert said he has only seen this issue come up a couple of times in his four-decade career with United Airlines. The controller said that in his 25 years working air traffic, he had never seen two aircraft “pretty much merge with the same call sign”, while calling it "incredible."
In the audio, the pilot is heard complimenting the controller the controller for his “nice work” after the two flights passed each other safely. Replying to this, the controller said, “It could have been disastrous, but I’m glad it worked out.”
The Federal Aviation Administration and American Airlines said a probe would be conducted to determine how this happened.