Flying routes that were involved in accidents

General Discussion Pilot Talk
22

I don’t think you’ll find very many if any airlines that operate an accident route with the accident flight number unchanged. It would be considered extremely disrespectful within the industry, but even more importantly it would be a marketing nightmare.
We still see superstitious nonsense like airlines not using the number 13 for flights, some airports not having a gate 13 etc. They do this because it actually matters to some folks. Well, no passengers want to fly on a flight that crashed.

Within the industry, there’s another reason these flight numbers are retired: it has to do with a token of respect for those who have lost their lives. If my airline assigned me to a flight 261 today, I would not operate it. I don’t know anyone who would.

So, the idea that someone would do it for fun in a video game is… Distasteful. I get that most Vatsim folks are not aware that this culture exists within the industry, so I thought I’d share it here. If you really want to do things “as real as it gets”… please do not intentionally use accident callsigns. It’s pretty simple not to.

1 Like
23

It’s also not that difficult to do accidentally – for those of us who like to go onto sites like departedflights and timetableimages and re-enact routine, ordinary operations from yesteryear in planes like the DC-3, DC-6, 727, 747-200, and others. So I know you said “do not intentionally …” (emphasis added), but please be mindful that not all accident callsigns on the network are being used maliciously.

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Noted and fair point, for folks using historic timetables, I can see how that could happen.