Description

Misidentification is a situation where the controller believes that a symbol on the screen matches a particular flight when in reality this is not the case. The root cause is usually either the selection of an improper identification procedure, not taking account of the procedure's specific limitations, or the inappropriate use of the selected procedure. For example, using a duplicated SSR code for identification is an improper use of the "recognition of the assigned discrete code" procedure, and trying the procedure on an aircraft with a non-discrete code (e.g. 1000) is not taking account of the applicable limitations. Naturally, this procedure should not have been chosen in both situations.

The risk of misidentification is generally less for the approach controller position compared to the en route controller. The reason is that the communication with aerodrome ATC units is more specific and errors are much easier to detect.

Contributory Factors

The following factors (or a combination of them) can contribute to wrong identification: