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B767 pilot reported a company practice of issuing similar sounding callsigns that resulted in ATC confusion.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 1691043 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201910 |
| Local Time Of Day | 1201-1800 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | ZDV.ARTCC |
| State Reference | CO |
| Environment | |
| Flight Conditions | VMC |
| Light | Daylight |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | B767-300 and 300 ER |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 121 |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Captain Pilot Not Flying |
| Qualification | Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Multiengine |
| Experience | Flight Crew Last 90 Days 100 Flight Crew Total 11000 Flight Crew Type 50 |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | No Specific Anomaly Occurred All Types |
Narrative:
It is a great concern of mine to always having to deal with extremely similar call signs during my flights. Here are some examples of similar flight numbers and call signs that I have encountered in the past six months while flying. [Company] XX1 flying at the same time as [company] XX2; or [company] XXX3 and XXX4. These extremely similar call signs are found during approaches; departures and enroute portion of flights. We; [company] pilots; have to be extremely careful and have to check and double check a lot of times in order not to fly somebody else's clearance. ATC has to constantly warn us of similar callsigns on frequency. The amount of extra workload; concentration and worry that this issue poses on us is unnecessary; extremely difficult; tasking and fatiguing. Not only on us pilots; but on air traffic controllers as well. [Company] is the only company to exercise such practice. I never hear ATC mentioning other companies having similar call sign issues. I know that this is a very common complaint amongst [company] pilots. Despite the multiple reports filed on this matter; [company] has done nothing. I cannot express enough how extremely hazardous this [company] practice is to the safety of flights. Thank you very much.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: B767 pilot reported a company practice of issuing similar sounding callsigns that resulted in ATC confusion.
Narrative: It is a great concern of mine to always having to deal with extremely similar call signs during my flights. Here are some examples of similar flight numbers and call signs that I have encountered in the past six months while flying. [Company] XX1 flying at the same time as [Company] XX2; or [Company] XXX3 and XXX4. These extremely similar call signs are found during approaches; departures and enroute portion of flights. We; [Company] pilots; have to be extremely careful and have to check and double check a lot of times in order not to fly somebody else's clearance. ATC has to constantly warn us of similar callsigns on frequency. The amount of extra workload; concentration and worry that this issue poses on us is unnecessary; extremely difficult; tasking and fatiguing. Not only on us pilots; but on air traffic controllers as well. [Company] is the only company to exercise such practice. I never hear ATC mentioning other companies having similar call sign issues. I know that this is a very common complaint amongst [Company] pilots. Despite the multiple reports filed on this matter; [Company] has done nothing. I cannot express enough how extremely hazardous this [Company] practice is to the safety of flights. Thank you very much.
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.