AN SF34 CREW; DEPARTING DFW; RESPONDED TO A DSND RA FROM TCASII.

2002-01 · NASA ASRS report 536374

Date: 2002-01 · Aircraft: SF 340A · Phase: climb

Anomalies: aircraft-equipment-problem-critical|conflict-nmac|deviation-altitude-excursion-from-assigned-altitude|other-warning-system-anomaly

Synopsis

AN SF34 CREW; DEPARTING DFW; RESPONDED TO A DSND RA FROM TCASII.

Narrative

AS WE WERE APCHING 3000 FT; CLBING OUT OF DFW; WE RECEIVED A TCASII RA TO DSND. I ASKED FO TO RESPOND TO RA; AS I TRIED TO ASK DEP CTL IF HE SHOWED ANY CONFLICTING TFC. THIS RA WAS VERY UNUSUAL; IN THAT ATC SAID THERE WAS NO CONFLICTING TFC (ONCE I WAS ABLE TO COMMUNICATE ON CONGESTED FREQ). ALSO; THE RA CONTINUED EVEN THOUGH WE HAD DSNDED ABOUT 800 FT. SO; I ASKED FO TO ABANDON RESPONDING TO RA AND RESUME CLB. I RECYCLED TCASII SWITCH TO STAND-BY AND BACK TO AUTO; THIS DISCONTINUED THE RA COMMAND. APPARENTLY; THIS WAS A SPURIOUS TCASII RA. SINCE WE ARE TRAINED TO RESPOND TO RA'S AND NOT TRY TO SECOND-GUESS THE VERACITY OF EVERY RA; WE RESPONDED. IN RETROSPECT; THIS MANEUVER TURNED OUT TO BE A HARROWING EXPERIENCE FOR THE PAX. HOWEVER; THE ALTERNATIVE OF NOT RESPONDING TO THIS RA; AT ALL; THEN FINDING OUT THAT IT WAS A GENUINE RA; MAY HAVE BEEN EVEN MORE HARROWING; IF NOT WORSE! A FEW MINS LATER INTO OUR CLB; WE NOTICED A TRANSIENT ANOMALY IN THE BACKUP CHANNEL OF THE ACFT'S WARNING ELECTRONIC UNIT. IMMEDIATELY; WE CONTACTED COMPANY MAINT. CONSENSUS WAS REACHED TO RETURN BACK TO DFW ARPT. THE REST OF THE FLT WAS UNEVENTFUL. ALSO; THE WARNING ELECTRONIC UNIT REDUNDANCY LIGHT NEVER REILLUMINATED. AFTER PARKING AT THE GATE; I ENTERED 2 DISCREPANCY ITEMS IN ACFT MAINT LOGBOOK. ONE RPTING TCASII PROB. THE OTHER WARNING ELECTRONIC UNIT LIGHT ILLUMINATING FOR A SPLIT SECOND.

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

Loading the flight search…

Frequently asked questions

How do I search flights by aircraft type on FlightFinder?

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.

Which aircraft types can I filter by?

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.

Is FlightFinder free to use?

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.

Where does the route data come from?

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.