Narrative:

We were on a downwind to runway 27 on a vector to san. ATC asked us if we had another carrier's airbus in sight to follow on the visual. I told ATC that we had it in sight at our 2 o'clock. The controller said to follow the airbus and we were cleared the approach to runway 27. We then made a right turn to follow the traffic. About 30 seconds later the controller told us we were not following the correct traffic and put us back on a heading. He then pointed out the traffic we were supposed to be following; which was not at our 2 o'clock when I originally confirmed it but more like at our 11 o'clock. The other carrier never had to deviate; and we didn't come close to them. We followed them in for a non-eventful full stop.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B737 flight crew misidentified the traffic they were to follow for a visual approach to SAN. Approach control identified and corrected the error.

Narrative: We were on a downwind to Runway 27 on a vector to SAN. ATC asked us if we had another carrier's Airbus in sight to follow on the visual. I told ATC that we had it in sight at our 2 o'clock. The Controller said to follow the Airbus and we were cleared the approach to Runway 27. We then made a right turn to follow the traffic. About 30 seconds later the Controller told us we were not following the correct traffic and put us back on a heading. He then pointed out the traffic we were supposed to be following; which was not at our 2 o'clock when I originally confirmed it but more like at our 11 o'clock. The other carrier never had to deviate; and we didn't come close to them. We followed them in for a non-eventful full stop.

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.