B190 CREW ON BASE INBOUND TO DEN ASKED BY APCH CTL TO FOLLOW A320 TFC AT 10 O'CLOCK POS AND LATER LEARNED TFC TO FOLLOW WAS THE SECOND A320 ACFT ON APCH.

Date: 2003-02 · Aircraft: Beech 1900 · Phase: approach

Anomalies: atc-issue-all-types|conflict-airborne-conflict|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-published-material-policy|other-acft-misidentification

Synopsis

B190 CREW ON BASE INBOUND TO DEN ASKED BY APCH CTL TO FOLLOW A320 TFC AT 10 O'CLOCK POS AND LATER LEARNED TFC TO FOLLOW WAS THE SECOND A320 ACFT ON APCH.

Narrative

AFTER RECEIVING BASE VECTOR TO RWY 17R VISUAL APCH; APCH CTLR ALERTED US TO FOLLOW TFC 'AT YOUR 10 O'CLOCK POS' -- BOTH CREW MEMBERS SAW AN a319 AT OUR 10 O'CLOCK POS AND RESPONDED 'TFC IN SIGHT.' -- WE WERE TOLD TO FOLLOW THAT TFC 'CLRED FOR VISUAL APCH RWY 17R.' WE BEGAN TO SQUARE OUR BASE TURN IN ORDER TO STABILIZE OUR APCH PROFILE; AND TO MAINTAIN SEPARATION FROM TFC TO FOLLOW -- SOON AFTER REACHING 8000 FT MSL AND APPROX HDG OF 265 DEGS. APCH QUERIED US AS TO THE A320 AT OUR 12 O'CLOCK POS. AT THIS TIME; WE SLOWED TO OUR MINIMUM APCH AIRSPD; DEPLOYED OUR APCH FLAPS; AND LOWERED THE LNDG GEAR. WE FELL IN 3 MI TRAIL OF THE AIRBUS AND CONTINUED. CREW WAS DISCUSSING 'OUR GAR' OPTION WHEN TWR CHANGED OUR RWY TO RWY 17L. LANDED UNEVENTFULLY. IN OUR VIEW; THE 'TFC TO FOLLOW' CALL FROM APCH WAS VAGUE AS THERE WERE 2 A320'S ON FINAL! ATC WANTED US TO FOLLOW THE SECOND A320 THAT WAS AT OUR 2 O'CLOCK POS INITIALLY. CONTRIBUTING FACTORS WERE SEVERAL AIRSPD ADJUSTMENTS PRIOR TO BASE VECTOR; MORNING BANK AIR TFC; AND INCORRECT IDENT OF FOLLOWING TFC.

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