American Airlines 727 Flight? Almost...

Aviation Notable Activity
1

Hey guys,

I was browsing FlightAware tonight for “All Airborne Aircraft (by type)” and noticed that there was only one “B722” ie: 727-200 (which is my favorite airplane). When i clicked on it, it indicated that it was an American Airlines 727!! However, after looking at the “Activity Log” it appears that someone just made a mistake, as all other daily flights under that flight number are operated by a “B772” ie: 777-200.

Here’s the link!
flightaware.com/live/flight/AAL1 … /MDSD/KJFK

I got so excited when i saw it! It was nice to see the image of the American Airlines 727 at the top :frowning: I wish i could go back in time to the point where American Airlines still flew the 727…
How does a mistake like this happen? Who’s the one typing in “722” or “772” into flightaware?

I also notice this happened on Dec 6th with the same flight:
flightaware.com/live/flight/AAL1 … /MDSD/KJFK

Just thought i’d share!

2

Watch the Channel 2 news in San Francisco. Whenever they have an item on American Airlines they show 727’s. So if it’s on the news it must be true that American is still flying 727’s. Now, someone should tell American that they are flying the beautiful 727!

Answering your question about who is typing in the aircraft type: FlightAware gets its data from the FAA so there is no “typing in” by FlightAware.

3

Since the aircraft originated outside US Airspace, I believe the flightplan had to be entered by a controller of some sort once it entered US Airspace - that’s probably where the mistyping occurred. It was probably corrected on the flightstrip later down the line.

4

Ahh I see, that makes sense. Often I’ll track planes over my house using flightaware, watching them on my screen and then looking in the sky with my binoculars, and there have been quite a few times Flightaware has been wrong about A/C type. For example, Flightaware will indicate a British Airways flight is being operated by a 747, but when I look up it’s clearly a 777. With my binoculars I can clearly see the Union Flag on the tail so I know it’s still BA, just the wrong plane type.

I hope controllers on the ground are getting actual info from the plane’s transponders, not from the same source that Flightaware gets its info from. If there were ever an emergency I can imagine what issues this could cause!