2025-12 · NASA ASRS report 2319306
Air carrier pilot reported during final approach ATC allowed a helicopter to fly beneath the carrier; which resulted in two TCAS TA events.
On final for 35R in MCO we were cleared to land. Tower told us there is helicopter traffic at 11:00 down low who will be passing left to right across the final. I had the traffic in sight. At a time of high workload; at 1000' AGL; at about the time of the 1000 stable on tower speed green call out with the landing checklist completed; I lost sight of the helicopter as it passed underneath us from west to east. My FO (First Officer) was the flying pilot and was looking to acquire the traffic out his side. We were of course fully configured and we were never unstable. Everything happened extremely time compressed in the momentary loss of visual acquisition of the helicopter as it passed underneath our nose; and we got two traffic TAs in short succession at about the time of the 1000' stable call; etc. Due to map clutter symbology I couldn't make out the altitude data tag on TCAS but in my micro seconds of brain processing saw the traffic now east of the FMS track line and knew their course was diverging so in that moment had the thought process to continue. It was extremely high workload. Having all stable approach criteria met and in the split second of the TAs and seeing the data tag east of our track; I did not call for a go around and neither did my FO. We landed uneventfully. We had a pilot in our jumpseat who also observed this event. At the gate; we discussed this extensively; realizing how dangerous that actually was and what a poor practice it was of Tower to allow the helicopter to proceed underneath us while we were on final. And on converging tracks. I expressed my extreme displeasure at the Local Controller allowing helicopter traffic to pass laterally underneath us after we were cleared to land and while we are descending at low altitude. TCAS RAs are inhibited at 1100'; and the TAs we got might have been a resolution command had it not been inhibited.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
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