FAA Investigating Puzzling Cockpit Warnings

The FAA is investigating following multiple reports of flight crews receiving faulty alerts from their cockpit TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) systems about traffic potentially on a collision course as they approached Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) in Washington, DC.

The flight crews reported that there were no other aircraft in their immediate vicinity, yet the TCAS gave them an alert and where to fly when it detects an impending conflict. It is not yet known what caused the faulty alerts, however, the pilots followed the appropriate procedure in response to the alerts.

The FAA said in a statement, "Several flight crews inbound to Reagan Washington National Airport received onboard alerts Saturday indicating another aircraft was nearby when no other aircraft were in the area. Some of the crews executed go-arounds as a result of the alerts. The FAA is investigating why the alerts occurred.”

The airspace around DCA has been under increased scrutiny since the mid-air collision of a US Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet on final approach into DCA in January. Some operational aspects have also been changed, primarily for helicopter traffic, and presidential air travel has resulted in several ground stops.

Robert Sumwalt, former chair of the National Transportation Safety Board said, "I've never heard of something like this. Nuisance alerts, yes, they happen. But not like this where several planes have it at the same location."

Steve Scheibner, an airline pilot for 40 years, said, "So that’s a very rare occurrence to have what’s called a TCAS advisory. There’s only three things I think that could cause it to go off. First is another airplane...

“The idea that it wasn’t another aircraft leaves it up to the other two, which is either a flock of birds, which is very unlikely, or something on the ground that was transmitting that was causing an erroneous signal that caught several of these airplanes in a row."

FMI:  www.faa.gov/