A Q400 First Officer reported apparent false TCAS alerts after takeoff that directed them toward terrain. Reporter stated the aircraft had a history of false TCAS calls; and they were directed by maintenance to pull the breaker for the system.

Narrative

On initial climb out we experienced an RA just prior to acceleration height. The weather was VMC and there were multiple aircraft in the pattern. The Captain immediately complied with the RA to 'descend; descend now'. Neither of us could get a visual on the traffic and the TCAS showed the aircraft on top of us at our altitude (OO). My initial reaction was that someone was descending on top of us or we were climbing into somebody because neither the Captain nor I could get a visual on the traffic (we were on a VMC climb through FL180). After descending at an accelerated rate due to the RA compliance we found ourselves getting uncomfortable close to hilly terrain near the airport. The gear warning horn was also going off because of our flap and power setting. At this point the Captain elected to climb to avoid the terrain despite the RA telling us to continue our rapid descent. Once the Captain applied power and started to climb the RA reversed and told us to 'climb; climb now'. At this point both of us were getting confused. I contacted Center and ATC said that there was no traffic in our vicinity. We continued our climb out and the RA continued to command us to fly at least 2300 fpm to avoid the traffic. After a few minutes the Captain called Maintenance and they told him to pull the TCAS circuit breaker. Once the Captain performed this action the RA went away and we got the TCAS fail message on our displays. After we landed Maintenance came out to defer TCAS. The mechanic mentioned that the particular aircraft we were in had a history of TCAS problems. That comment irritated me because getting a false RA like we just did was a serious threat to safety. It was a good thing we were VMC and could see the terrain. If we were IMC and got the RA (maybe due to a VFR pilot getting lost in the clouds); things could have gotten ugly.