TRACON controller described an unsafe condition resulting from similar company flight numbers operat...

Narrative:

Similar call sign issue. I was in training. These two call signs are often on the same frequency at the same time; and have been submitted as a problem before. A B737-800 was the inbound; I believe; and a B757-200; the departure. The arrival was taken off the STAR as a vector behind traffic. When I shipped the outbound to another facility; the wrong aircrat answered and I did not catch the bad read back. When I tried to vector the arrival back onto the STAR; the action was delayed because that aircraft had changed to the other facility's frequency. No loss or issue with other aircraft resulted; but it definitely increased the complexity and frequency congestion when there was confusion between the two aircraft. Recommendation; change these call signs as soon as possible.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: TRACON Controller described an unsafe condition resulting from similar company flight numbers operating within the same airspace at the same time.

Narrative: Similar call sign issue. I was in training. These two call signs are often on the same frequency at the same time; and have been submitted as a problem before. A B737-800 was the inbound; I believe; and a B757-200; the departure. The arrival was taken off the STAR as a vector behind traffic. When I shipped the outbound to another facility; the wrong aircrat answered and I did not catch the bad read back. When I tried to vector the arrival back onto the STAR; the action was delayed because that aircraft had changed to the other facility's frequency. No loss or issue with other aircraft resulted; but it definitely increased the complexity and frequency congestion when there was confusion between the two aircraft. Recommendation; change these call signs ASAP.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 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	1111655
Time
Date	201308
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.TRACON
State Reference	US
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B757-200
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Descent
Route In Use	Vectors
Flight Plan	IFR
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	B737-800
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Climb
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Supervisor / CIC
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types

TRACON controller described an unsafe condition resulting from similar company flight numbers operating within the same airspace at the same time.