The YouTube video you link to is actually about a separate incident from the one described in the article. The video is about an incident involving two AAL2482s near Phoenix; the article is about an incident involving two AA5083s near Providence.

It's the same idea though; one was inbound, the other outbound, and ATC had to distinguish between the two.

[edit: Corrected locations.]

The probability of it becoming a catastrophe was infinitesimally low with the existence of TCAS.

Well, and ATC. Airliners’ callsigns are their flight numbers.

Iirc, AA/Sabre knows that a flight identifier is actually carrier+flight number+origin airport+departure date.

But who all calls someone by their full name all the time??

Maybe they ran out of numbers I mean there are only so many...

Alphanumeic call signs are already used around the world [0], it's just that the US (like many other aviation fields) is behind the times.

[0] https://www.flightradar24.com/blog/aviation-explainer-series...

Too much complexity. It would be simpler for IATA to approximate GA conventions of using partial registration numbers, perhaps 2 to 4 suffix characters depending on traffic conditions. It's overly verbose and slower to announce the brand or callsign of an airline followed by the low density decimal flight number.

The format is SSIM defined by IATA - the international association of transport airlines. It specifies two letter airline code followed by four digit flight.

I'm sure various ATC systems also assume this.

Changing it would be an industry-wide effort.

Which airlines have 10,000 flights in progress at time?

ChatGPT says AA have the most, 1500 planes - 4 digits is plenty.

Theres a simpler change, how is it possible to allocate numbers without first verifying said number is unique.

What would the short term ROI on that change be? That’s all they care about.

Would not be very convenient to view on a radar screen.

Europe for one have used alphanumeric flight numbers for years.

Given how long humans have had to implement or fix the most basic of shit (some major apps with millions of users still don't have a Dark Mode, for example) maybe handing the reigns to AI is for the better after all..

Certainly couldn't get any worse, I mean

(I am not AI)

The US is really weird with flight numbers and I don't think any other country in the world does it the same way.

You often get flights sharing the same flight numbers such as JFK-SLC and SLC-SFO being the same flight number, even if it's a completely different plane doing the route!

Also super confusing when trying to search for your (or a loved one's) flight online as you'll get multiple matches.

Alaska does the same too. Especially with their shorter flights, you might have more than 2 of the same flight per day.

UUID is the obvious answer. "d4580737-1168-4399-b747-8a5e7af5fc97, climb and maintain 14000" just rolls off the tongue.