2011-04 · NASA ASRS report 946563
Air Carrier flight crew reports accepting a clearance to descend intended for another aircraft which results in a TCAS RA. Fatigue was cited as a factor.
I was the pilot flying to DFW and we were deviating to the left of Stonz Intersection on north flow to DFW. We were level at 11;000 FT heading about 210 when both First Officer and I heard our callsign and instructions to descend to 6;000 FT and head 190. We were instructed to contact Approach on 119.4 and told of traffic at 1 o'clock and 10;000 FT. I stated to the First Officer 'I wonder why they would give us that clearance with traffic over there.' I had barely started down when the First Officer told me to level as she was looking at the TCAS and I was searching outside. I actually climbed the aircraft before getting the RA. People were deviating from LIT all the way in and also in the terminal area. The ATC Manager said those instructions were for another flight and that the Controller had issued them twice. We evidentially responded on the second call but we were blocked by the other flight responding. This was the second 84 plus hour month in a row for me having just completed a 4 day trip and flying 25.30 hours on that trip. I was assigned this trip in the evening and confirmed the deadhead out with crew scheduling. I had to sit in the jumpseat out because the dead head was made on an oversold flight and could not check in early for a seat. The agent said it was either the jumpseat or not at all. Crew tracking could not be reached (did not answer my call to resolve issue) I took the jumpseat and headed out. It was either that or not get there in time for the flight I was working out. Fatigue does cause one to lose that edge especially needed in the terminal area. I even question myself now as to why I would have even begun such a descent. If my game was on it would not have happened. With 4 days of early get ups it is not surprising that this could have happened. With manning the way it is I expect more of these types of deviations to affect the pilots at our company. Just look at how much flying reserve pilots did at my base and you'll get my point. I guess some would say that was perfect utilization of the reserves. Pilots on reserve know better. We are pretty much beat.
We were deviating around build ups at 11;000 and unable to cross STONZ on BYP arrival. We had been coordinating with ATC. I (pilot not flying) stated that we were unable to cross STONZ. What I heard after that was fly heading 190 descend to 6;000 contact Approach which seemed very reasonable considering we were deviating and need to rejoin the arrival. I read that back and then the Controller said that we had traffic 1 o'clock at 10;000. I responded that we were looking and switched frequencies. I think I called twice. During this time I was looking at the TCAS screen and the pilot flying had started down. I saw the conflict and told him to level. He clicked off the autopilot and was beginning a climb when we got the RA. I checked in again and stated we were responding to an RA. After the Captain spoke with ATC Manager and we learned the clearance had not been ours. We had no idea the conflict was our fault until the tape was pulled. I have no idea how we mistook a 4 digit call sign for a 3 digit call sign. I will be extremely cautious in the future. I just wanted to add that once we leveled and began to climb I did have the aircraft in sight. This was not an abrupt maneuver by any means.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
Loading the flight search…
Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.
We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.
Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.
Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.