Phoenix Controller Safely Separates 2 American Airlines Flights Sharing Call Sign 2482

3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Aug 15

Two American Airlines flights using call sign 2482 were landing and departing at Phoenix Sky Harbor early Friday when a controller spotted the overlap and handled them as “arrival” and “departure.”
The conflict arose after the inbound Chicago flight was delayed and another aircraft was assigned the same identifier for the scheduled return trip to Chicago before the first plane had arrived.
The controller kept the aircraft properly separated, and both the landing and takeoff were completed without incident; on the recording, he said the situation “could have been disastrous.”
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the episode, which underscores a long-running aviation safety risk tied to duplicate or similar call signs.

Sources

How did a major airline's software fail to detect two identical flight numbers sharing the exact same airspace?

If human intervention failed, would automated aircraft systems have actually prevented these twin flights from colliding?

Could the FAA ban out-and-back flight numbers to prevent a potentially disastrous mid-air collision in the future?