The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a series of false midair collision alerts received by multiple commercial flights preparing to land at Reagan National Airport over the weekend.
All of the alerts occurred mere miles from the deadly midair collision between an American Airlines plane and a US Army Blackhawk helicopter on Jan. 29 that killed every person — 67 lives — aboard both aircraft.
Several flight crews reported receiving inexplicable alerts on their Traffic Collision Avoidance System on Saturday, despite there being no other aircraft near them at the time, the FAA said in a statement on Monday.
“We were about 1200 feet, [when the TCAS said] there was somebody diving straight onto us,” a Republic Airline pilot told the control tower just after 9 a.m. on Saturday, according to audio captured by LiveATC.net.
“It’s been happening all morning. Let me know if you see anything. No one else has seen anything except for on the TCAS,” the tower air traffic controller warned another Republic flight.
“Yeah, we got a little something there. It said on the TCAS that it was 600 feet above us. And we didn’t see anything,” the pilot responded later.
Pilots of at least a dozen flights reported getting the apparently unfounded alerts — causing three planes to perform go-arounds on Saturday morning, CBS News reported.
In one blitz just after 9 a.m., six similar false alerts were reported within 11 minutes of each other, according to the news station.
Ground air traffic control and TCAS work separately from one another. TCAS searches nearby airspace via radio frequencies from transponders in other aircraft and uses these to detect possible collisions and help navigate pilots to safety.
Variables like low altitudes and landing approaches that can interfere with radio signals complicate matters with the system. However, it’s unusual for so many planes to receive false warnings in just one weekend, and at one specific location.
“Reporting traffic around our 11 o’clock. We got anything out here?” a PSA Airlines pilot questioned the control tower Saturday.
“Negative… no known traffic between you and the field,” the control tower responded.
Still, pilots proceeded with caution and many opted to abort their landings “as a result of the alerts,” officials said.
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