A potential disaster was averted Friday when a Phoenix air traffic controller recognized two American Airlines jets mistakenly were flying the same flight number and acted quickly to avoid confusion and keep them a safe distance apart.

The Federal Aviation Administration just beat the high score. The agency hired more than 2,000 air traffic controllers this year after a campaign targeting gamers — and has already hit 94% of its recruitment goal,

The audio, posted by ATC.com, shows exactly how the controller quickly shifted to identifying one plane as “American 2482 on the arrival” and the other as “American 2482 on the departure,” ensuring that the two planes maintained a safe course.

The agency says recruiting gamers helped it hit 94 percent of its hiring target so far this year.

The pilot of an Atlas Air 747 notified air traffic controllers of a landing gear problem and the need to dump fuel and return to the airport in Huntsville Thursday.

The Transportation Department is drawing bipartisan criticism for rewarding $10,000 bonuses to a small number of air traffic controllers and technicians while ignoring the vast majority of the workforce who went unpaid during the 43-day funding lapse.

DOT secretary blamed delays and cancellations in the Northeast on a combination of absenteeism and bad weather.