American Airlines Callsign

[Amante de Aviones]

I was in the termnal at John Wayne today, while waiting I saw and heard some very unusual thing.  As i was waiting there were 4 AA 738s that came in with the Callsigns Snowball 3,4,and 5.  Two of these planes got water cannon salutes.  Why was their Callsign Snowball.

[Jason]

Snowball is designated the FAA telephony/callsign for DELTA AIR CHARTER LTD.

[Amante de Aviones]

So American was flying for Delta Air Charter then?

[jonnevin]

there were a couple of  AA9000 series flights this morning, but they show up on flight aware as normal American callsigns.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/AAL9784

[Amante de Aviones]

Yea that was one of them cause i was there in the morning when 3 arrived.  2 got water salutes which was preety cool to see

[ect76]

Not sure if it's relevant but I found this:


http://www.snowballexpress.org/index.htm

http://imairsick.com/2008/12/snowball-express-bring-joy-to-families.html

It definitely lists American Airlines as the carrier. Also says pilots were volunteers, so perhaps American just provided the aircraft and the callsign was snowball? I'm guessing this is the same thing. And if you check the itenirary (Spelling is wrong, I know...I've had a couple of beers!) the date they return home is the day you posted you saw them!

Wikipedia also says Snowball is:

SNO    Delta Air Charter    SNOWBALL    Canada

So, is it linked to Delta Air Lines, given that it's registered in Canada? Or is the name just a coincidence?

[Amante de Aviones]

yea after reading that, thats probably why they got the water cannon salute,  its pretty awesome that American airlines is doing that for famlies with dear ones who gave their life.