[SystemSafety] Chicago controller halts Delta jet's near-miss on takeoff: '1328, stop, stop stop!'

[Peter Bernard Ladkin]

Prof. Peter Bernard Ladkin, University of Bielefeld and Causalis Limited

> On 18 Jun 2015, at 19:37, Peter Bernard Ladkin <ladkin at rvs.uni-bielefeld.de> wrote:
> 
> A known problem. Quasi-ambiguous call signs.

As Chris says, not particularly rare.

Steven Cushing's Fatal Words, a book published by U. Chicago Press nearly two decades ago on safety problems in civil aviation caused through linguistic  factors, has a chapter on it, I recall (I am away from my library).

Contributing factors are moderately clear. One is similar call signs. Another is transmissions being "stepped on" (partially obscured by a concurrent transmission from another). The third is cognitive confusion of some sort - someone gets the airplanes mixed up as a result of the first two. It is surprising that the issue persists after decades of attention from smart people.

PBL