1991-08 · NASA ASRS report 188283
FLC OF LGT RECEIVED TCASII RA. CLBED TO AVOID. SAW SMT TFC PASS TO R 600 FT; APPROX 2100.
ON VECTORS FROM PHL APCH R BASE TO FINAL; RWY 27R DSNDING FROM 3000 TO 2100 FT. WE GOT TCASII TA; 2 TARGETS 900 FT BELOW US. I ASKED APCH IF HE HAD ANY TFC IN OUR AREA. HE REPLIED NEGATIVE. SHORTLY; ANOTHER TA; APCH SAID HE HAD A POP-UP TARGET AHEAD OF US; ISSUED NEW HDG FOR INTERCEPT OF ILS. I THINK THE CTLR SAID 'MAINTAIN 3000' BUT I WASN'T SURE IT WAS FOR US. I TRIED TO VERIFY THE CLRNC; MEANWHILE MORE TCASII ALERTS AND PICKED UP TFC ABOUT 12:30; JUST BELOW US. AT FIRST BOTH FO; WHO WAS FLYING; AND I THOUGHT IT WAS A MID SIZED COMMUTER AIRPLANE A FEW MI AHEAD ON A PARALLEL BASE LEG. WE LOOKED; LISTENED TO TCASII AND TRIED TO TALK TO APCH (A CONDITION VERGING ON 'DATA OVERLOAD') THEN REALIZED THE TFC WAS AN SMT MUCH CLOSER TO US. I INSTRUCTED THE FO TO 'TAKE IT UP' RAISING MY HAND; PALM UP SEVERAL TIMES. HE SMOOTHLY APPLIED NOSE UP AND SOME PWR (WE WERE FLAPS 2 DEG/190 KTS) AND I COULD SEE THAT HE HAD THE TFC IN SIGHT ON HIS SIDE AS IT WENT OUT OF MY SIGHT; BELOW AND TO THE R. I LOOKED AT THE TCASII SCREEN; THE RED SQUARE SAID -01; THE FO SAID HE SAW .01 NM ON THE DATA LINE; UPPER R; FOR LATERAL SEPARATION. WE BOTH HEARD THE TCASII SAY; I BELIEVE; 'DSND; DSND' FOR AN INITIAL RESOLUTION AND THEN 'MONITOR VERT SPD'. THE LOWER ARC OF THE FO'S VERT SPD INDICATOR WAS RED AS THE TFC PASSED BELOW. THE TFC WAS ILLEGALLY FLYING THROUGH THE TCA AT 2100 FT (PHL FIELD VISIBILITY RPTED AS 1 1/2 MI). WITHOUT A CLRNC; I RARELY HAVE TCASII ON BOARD AND DON'T GET A LOT OF PRACTICE WITH IT. HOWEVER; IT ALERTED US TO A REAL THREAT -- FORTUNATELY SQUAWKING MODE C -- AND HELPED PREVENT A LIKELY MIDAIR COLLISION.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
Loading the flight search…
Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.
We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.
Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.
Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.