B757 Flight Crew experiences NMAC TCAS RA 25 NM west of TEB at 5500 feet and takes evasive action. Traffic; which turned out to be a biplane; was not called by ATC.
Synopsis
B757 Flight Crew experiences NMAC TCAS RA 25 NM west of TEB at 5500 feet and takes evasive action. Traffic; which turned out to be a biplane; was not called by ATC.
Narrative
On assigned vector from Approach Control heading 360 to 5000 FT I noticed traffic on the TCAS 7 miles away at the 10 o'clock position with a constant bearing; decreasing range. Traffic was at 5500 FT and descending and not called by ATC. At 5 miles separation we picked up traffic visually and received a TA. At 3 miles separation we got an RA to descend at 1000 FPM. We turned off the autopilot and descended as directed. We called ATC to question the traffic when we received the TA and then again when we got the RA. The Controller then cleared us to 4000 FT; but we were already descending. We passed directly under a small red biplane with 400 FT of vertical separation. We were at 4300 FT and the biplane was about 4700 FT. We were both descending. The biplane was heading east and continued to descend after he passed above us. We had the traffic in sight the whole time; but I am not sure he ever saw us. We were assigned a speed of 210 KTS at this time. The Controller asked if we were going to report this and I told him yes. We continued in to land uneventfully.
Second reporter narrative
We passed directly under a small red biplane with 400 FT of vertical separation. We were at 4300 FT and the biplane at 4700 FT and descending. The biplane was heading approximately 090 and continued to descend after passing over us. We had the traffic in sight the entire time. I'm not confident he ever saw us.
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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.