N723GW From United States of America, joined Nov 2005, 232 posts, RR: 0 Posted (7 years 4 months 5 days 20 hours ago) and read 1705 times:
Back when I was a ramprat watching flightrax, I remembered seeing a few NWA flights that had letters in them. For example, NWA1689A. I was told this was because the flight was carrying body parts. Is this true?
TimRees From United Kingdom, joined Aug 2001, 344 posts, RR: 0 Reply 1, posted (7 years 4 months 5 days 10 hours ago) and read 1649 times:
Don't know about that, but here in Europe many flights have alphanumeric callsigns now to avoid ATC confusion.
Back in Pan Am's days they added 'A' in multisector and change of equipment flights...eg PA103 LHR-JFK but if it originated on a 727/737 in say FRA the FRA-LHR flight was PA103A. Until recently UA did similar on their flights through LHR (don't think they have any transitting these days).
Could be that flight's particular ATC callsign which may or may not be the same as the commercial flight number. Which in this case it obviously isn't, if that's what it is, if you know what I mean...???
Trespassers will be shot; survivors will be shot again!
IAHFLYR From United States of America, joined Jun 2005, 4719 posts, RR: 25 Reply 3, posted (7 years 4 months 5 days 10 hours ago) and read 1635 times:
I believe the reason is if as example NWA1800 had a stop and equipment change in MSP on a from DTW-MEM-SEA and continues to SEA using another aircraft which is common.....if the company determined the DTW-MEM was late inbound and the MEM-SEA portion was ready to go, rather than wait they will dispatch the MEM-SEA segment as possibly NWA1800A for ATC purposes as the HOST computer will not accept 2 flights with the same call sign in the air at the same time. I am sure there are other reasons as well but I know that one sticks out in my fading memory!
Any views shared are strictly my own and do not a represent those of any former employer.
BDKLEZ From Ireland, joined Jun 2005, 1735 posts, RR: 16 Reply 4, posted (7 years 4 months 5 days 10 hours ago) and read 1625 times:
Quoting IAHFLYR (Reply 3): rather than wait they will dispatch the MEM-SEA segment as possibly NWA1800A for ATC purposes as the HOST computer will not accept 2 flights with the same call sign in the air at the same time
Plausible indeed, but I've just remembered some additional info. Dunno about the US, but here in Europe a callsign can only consist of maximum 4 characters, ie NWA"1800". A NWA"1800A" would be rejected by the ATC authorities as it consists of 5 charachers in addition to the 3 ICAO operator identifier characters. Is that the same in the US?
Trespassers will be shot; survivors will be shot again!
Newark777 From United States of America, joined Dec 2004, 9348 posts, RR: 33 Reply 5, posted (7 years 4 months 5 days 10 hours ago) and read 1625 times:
N723GW From United States of America, joined Nov 2005, 232 posts, RR: 0 Reply 6, posted (7 years 4 months 5 days 9 hours ago) and read 1602 times:
Quoting BDKLEZ (Reply 2): BDKLEZ From Ireland, joined Jun 2005, 686 posts, RR: 5
Reply 2, posted Wed Jan 18 2006 14:38:21 UTC+1 and read 38 times:
Quoting N723GW (Thread starter):
NWA1689A
Could be that flight's particular ATC callsign which may or may not be the same as the commercial flight number. Which in this case it obviously isn't, if that's what it is, if you know what I mean...???
I know what you're talking about. Comair, ASA and Eagle all do that in a way. If the flight number is like Comair 1234, so the pilots aren't saying all of that, they will just say Comair 234. But, like I said before, I seen this on flightrax (moving map flight tracker) and the identifier on the program had a letter in it. But when it came in, ATC just called it something like NW1689. No letters.
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