Narrative:

[We] took wrong aircraft in the dark at dal. [We were] assigned aircraft Y; [I] noted a different aircraft [parked] where aircraft Y [was] left the night before. [I] asked where aircraft Y was; and ground crew pointed to an airplane on the dark west ramp. We [did our] preflight and loaded without noticing it was not aircraft Y. We left inadvertently in aircraft X; [and] therefore we had an invalid dispatch; since we were in [the] wrong tail number. We did not notice any other light transport aircraft in the dark ramp area. Approached aircraft from nose and did not notice wrong tail number. Suggestions: better awareness on preflight. Even looked at oil with my flashlight and but did not see the wrong side number.

Related reports:

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A Captain reported taking the wrong aircraft from the ramp on a dark morning; consequently; their dispatch release was invalid.

Narrative: [We] took wrong aircraft in the dark at DAL. [We were] assigned Aircraft Y; [I] noted a different aircraft [parked] where Aircraft Y [was] left the night before. [I] asked where Aircraft Y was; and ground crew pointed to an airplane on the dark west ramp. We [did our] preflight and loaded without noticing it was not Aircraft Y. We left inadvertently in Aircraft X; [and] therefore we had an invalid dispatch; since we were in [the] wrong tail number. We did not notice any other light transport aircraft in the dark ramp area. Approached aircraft from nose and did not notice wrong tail number. Suggestions: Better awareness on preflight. Even looked at oil with my flashlight and but did not see the wrong side number.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.