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Two American Airlines Jets Flew Under the Same Flight Number Near Phoenix, Controller Kept Them Apart

Reporting says an air traffic controller separated an arriving and a departing aircraft that had both been assigned flight 2482 at Phoenix Sky Harbor; the FAA and the airline say they will investigate.

By AI ReporterFirst reported Aug 14, 2026, 1:52 p.m. ETUpdated Aug 17, 2026, 12:14 p.m. ET
Developing · checked 3h ago

This is a developing story. Details reported early are provisional and are frequently revised. Where sources disagree, both readings are given.

We last searched for new coverage of this at Aug 18, 2026, 6:37 a.m. ET — checked 3h ago.

Two aircraft were assigned the same flight number — one arriving at and one departing from Sky Harbor International Airport — on Friday 14 August 2026, Fox 5 Atlanta, Fox 10 and Fox 5 New York reported; Fox 4 News in Dallas-Fort Worth dated the event 14 August 2025. NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth, WHEC and The Associated Press put the time as , while the news aggregation site Biztoc put it at . The number is given as by Fox 5 Atlanta, Fox 10 , Fox 5 New York and Fox 4 News, and as "" by NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth, WHEC and the AP. A air traffic controller intervened after the two aircraft ended up in the same airspace under the same call sign. No collision occurred. According to the outlets, the flight-tracking service Flightradar24 reported that the two aircraft were on the same communications frequency. Controllers referred to them as " on approach" and " on departure" — and, in one account, " on the arrival" and " on the departure" — to keep instructions clear. The reporting states that the arriving aircraft was descending through 11,000 feet while the departing aircraft climbed toward 9,000 feet, and that the controller kept the arriving aircraft above the departing one and limited the departing aircraft's climb to preserve separation. A controller was heard on the radio saying: "Could have been disastrous, but I'm glad it worked out." The reporting also quotes a controller as saying that in 25 years of air traffic work he had never seen two aircraft merge with the same call sign. Audio of the exchange was posted by the website ATC.com, according to the reporting. The outlets reported that flight is a round-trip route between Chicago and , that the Chicago flight was delayed by weather, and that American used a second aircraft in for the outbound leg. said there were 295 passengers on both planes, 122 inbound to and 173 to Chicago, according to the same outlets. The airline said required separation was always maintained and both flights continued safely. The Federal Aviation Administration said both flights continued without further incident. The aircraft involved have not been identified. Registry records list 227 aircraft under ; that describes the operator's fleet and is not an identification of the aircraft in this event. NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth, WHEC and the AP reported that the FAA and will investigate how this happened; the aggregation site Biztoc reported that How the duplicate flight number came to be assigned has not been determined, and no authority has stated a cause.

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Reference data

From aircraft and geographic registries, not from the news sources. Registry records can be out of date, and describe the aircraft and the place only — they say nothing about what happened.

Terrain elevation
1,093 ft
Nearest aerodrome
4.0 miles WNW of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (KPHX/PHX)

Sources

Revision history

  1. Version 1017 Aug 2026, 16:14current

    Introduced Biztoc on first mention as "the news aggregation site Biztoc" and again as "the aggregation site Biztoc" in the final paragraph, replacing the bare "Biztoc said"/"Biztoc reported" constructions. Also glossed Flightradar24 as a flight-tracking service and ATC.com as a website, so no source appears as an unidentified voice. All date, time, flight-number and investigation-status disagreements are retained verbatim with their attributions, as are the 2482 / "American 2482" call signs, 11,000 feet, 9,000 feet, 295/122/173 passenger figures and the 25-years quote.

  2. Version 916 Aug 2026, 22:50

    Corrected the operator fleet figure to the 240 aircraft on the registry, added Fox 4 News's conflicting 2025 date, and credited WHEC alongside NBC 5 on the time, flight-number wording and investigation.

  3. Version 816 Aug 2026, 20:41

    Updated the American Airlines registry fleet count from 255 to 257 aircraft.

  4. Version 716 Aug 2026, 17:22

    Updated the operator fleet figure from registry records to 255 aircraft.

  5. Version 616 Aug 2026, 15:14

    Corrected the operator fleet figure in registry records from 275 to 192 aircraft.

  6. Version 516 Aug 2026, 13:49

    Corrected the registry fleet count to 275 aircraft and added Fox 5 New York to the attributions.

  7. Version 416 Aug 2026, 13:00

    Added the outlets' account of the Chicago-Phoenix round-trip route and the weather-delayed aircraft substitution; updated the registry fleet count to 219 and specified the weekday with the date.

  8. Version 316 Aug 2026, 12:50

    Corrected fleet figure to 208 aircraft, added the FAA and American Airlines investigation, the airline's statement that separation was maintained, the controller's altitude actions, the ATC.com audio and the differing flight-number and time wording.

  9. Version 216 Aug 2026, 10:05

    Corrected the operator fleet figure to the 235 aircraft on the registry, added Fox 10 Phoenix attribution, and removed the "developing" framing.

  10. Version 116 Aug 2026, 07:59

    First published.

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