2009-06 · NASA ASRS report 839864
A B737NG experienced an RA when climbing through conflicting traffic's altitude.
I was acting as First Officer; not flying pilot. On departure while level at 9000 FT ATC reported traffic at our approximate 11 o'clock position. I immediately acquired the jet and pointed it out to the Captain as I reported 'traffic in sight' to ATC. The Captain acknowledged by nodding his head and ATC cleared us to maintain visual and climb. I did not anticipate the Captain climbing until the traffic was clear but; as I was reading back the clearance; the Captain initiated a fairly aggressive climb in an attempt to top the traffic. I quickly finished reading the clearance to ATC and then looked to the traffic again thinking that I may have mis-assessed the threat. I had not - we were climbing directly into the converging traffic. This all happened in a matter of a couple of seconds but immediately after confirming the conflict; the TCAS RA sounded and called for a descent. The Captain continued to climb and increased the climb rate. Given the close proximity to the traffic and the hesitation in initially responding to the RA; I felt that we would not have time to stop a 6000 FPM climb; reverse it; and get into the green arc on the TCAS without creating more of a conflict. I do not believe that there was a separation issue and I would estimate the closest we came to the jet was 2 miles; but I can't be sure. As the First Officer; not flying pilot; I should have immediately stopped talking to ATC and queried the Captain on his decision to climb. The seconds lost finishing the radio call were crucial. In hindsight; I would have waited to call traffic in sight until the Captain and I both discussed the close proximity.
Northbound at 9000 FT. Departure issued traffic call at 10 o'clock; 10;000'; a 737. First Officer after confirming with me called visual. ATC issued; 'Maintain visual; cleared to climb to 14;000'.' Without confirming the First Officer's thoughts; I initiated a CWS climb of about 4000 FPM to avoid any TA or RA. Unfortunately at about 10;000 FT we got an RA. I disconnected the autopilot and climbed at an even greater rate when the RA said 'descend.' Because going to a descent would have caused a near-miss in my best assessment of the situation; I ignored the RA descend and we cleared the other carrier's 737 by my estimate of 1500 FT altitude separation as I saw him go underneath our aircraft. In discussing this with my First Officer; he agreed with my reaction to the RA but not my decision to climb in the first place. I suggested to him that he voice his concern immediately instead of after the fact.
More incidents for this aircraft family
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.