Narrative:

After having received delay vectors twice enroute; and while my first officer (pilot not flying) was calling inrange; I declared minimum fuel about twenty minutes from destination when the FMS indicated we'd land with 2100 pounds of fuel; 200 pounds above reserve. Upon checking in with the approach controller; we were advised by the controller that he'd turn our base in about two minutes. The approach environment was very busy; with instructions being issued about every three to five seconds. On frequency were company abcd; abce; and abcf and many others. Less than two minutes after that (perhaps one to two minutes); the approach controller instructed us to turn right to 270 degrees. We complied; and though it was less than the two minutes previously indicated; it made sense in light of our previous minimum fuel declaration. A moment later; the approach controller urgently advised that he'd not instructed us to turn base and issued an immediate left turn; while calling out traffic on final. I pickled the autopilot and quickly rolled left to the assigned heading; then taking the radio for a moment; advised that we'd heard the instruction and read it back. Shortly afterward the approach controller turned us to our base heading; pointed out traffic to follow; and cleared us for the visual to runway 1R. He also apologized for not catching our readback. I responded with 'no worries; we're over to tower. Well; of course stressing due diligence on the radio is important; but taking measures to minimize similar call signs arriving in the same bank would help; though that might be impractical. A possible factor here could be controller experience. We don't know what the individual controller's task load or experience might have been; though as previously mentioned it was a very busy environment. We believe we heard our call sign; but only listening to the tape will bear that out. We think it's likely that he used our call sign intending to turn someone else; though it's possible that we both misunderstood the callsign. In any case; the approach controller did a great job catching our being out of place; no matter who goofed and all I can think of to prevent recurrences is for us all to stress proper radio discipline.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier inbound to IAD; low on fuel and with three other company aircraft on the frequency with similar flight numbers; initiated a turn to the final; was corrected by ATC; controller stating turn was for company aircraft.

Narrative: After having received delay vectors twice enroute; and while my First Officer (pilot not flying) was calling inrange; I declared minimum fuel about twenty minutes from destination when the FMS indicated we'd land with 2100 pounds of fuel; 200 pounds above reserve. Upon checking in with the Approach Controller; we were advised by the controller that he'd turn our base in about two minutes. The approach environment was very busy; with instructions being issued about every three to five seconds. On frequency were Company ABCD; ABCE; and ABCF and many others. Less than two minutes after that (perhaps one to two minutes); the Approach Controller instructed us to turn right to 270 degrees. We complied; and though it was less than the two minutes previously indicated; it made sense in light of our previous minimum fuel declaration. A moment later; the Approach Controller urgently advised that he'd not instructed us to turn base and issued an immediate left turn; while calling out traffic on final. I pickled the autopilot and quickly rolled left to the assigned heading; then taking the radio for a moment; advised that we'd heard the instruction and read it back. Shortly afterward the Approach Controller turned us to our base heading; pointed out traffic to follow; and cleared us for the visual to Runway 1R. He also apologized for not catching our readback. I responded with 'no worries; we're over to Tower. Well; of course stressing due diligence on the radio is important; but taking measures to minimize similar call signs arriving in the same bank would help; though that might be impractical. A possible factor here could be controller experience. We don't know what the individual controller's task load or experience might have been; though as previously mentioned it was a very busy environment. We believe we heard our call sign; but only listening to the tape will bear that out. We think it's likely that he used our call sign intending to turn someone else; though it's possible that we BOTH misunderstood the callsign. In any case; the Approach Controller did a great job catching our being out of place; no matter who goofed and all I can think of to prevent recurrences is for us all to stress proper radio discipline.

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.