Air carrier Captain reported encountering wake turbulence on arrival into ORD 5 miles in trail of another aircraft.

Date: 2023-05 · Aircraft: B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model · Phase: descent

Anomalies: deviation-track-heading-all-types|inflight-event-encounter-wake-vortex-encounter

Synopsis

Air carrier Captain reported encountering wake turbulence on arrival into ORD 5 miles in trail of another aircraft.

Narrative

Encountered wake turbulence multiple times during the arrival. First event just prior to CABIJ intersection. Autopilot reverted to CWS concurrent with route guidance disappearing. Pilot Flying (PF) disconnected auto flight; and by the time aircraft stabilized; we had passed the turn for the south runway transition. Once stabilized we immediately turned; and shortly thereafter ATC queried our position. Pilot Monitoring (PM) reported auto flight and wake turbulence issues. Reestablished on the arrival; several minutes later; we again experienced wake turbulence; and PF again disconnected auto flight; stabilized the aircraft; and re-engaged auto flight. Both incidents occurred 5 miles in trail of what was reported to be Aircraft X. Winds were calm. We reported both incidents and ATC eventually gave us slightly further in-trail spacing to alleviate the issue. We had a third; minor encounter. From the handling ATC gave us; I suspect they assumed we had the wrong transition programmed in the FMS; but that is not the case. We were correctly programmed for the proper arrival; transition; and runway; and simply unluckily encountered wake turbulence at the worst possible time. ATC advised us they would report the two incidents.

NASA callback

Reporter stated that perhaps 5 miles is not enough spacing to avoid wake encounters.

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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.