FAA investigating series of false midair collision warnings near Reagan airport

• The FAA is investigating after multiple flights picked up false midair collision alerts on Saturday, March 1. The alerts did not come from air traffic control, but their aircrafts’ Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS).
• TCAS runs on radio frequency and can be impacted by interference.
• Some pilots chose to abort their landings out of an abundance of caution.

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The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a series of false midair collision alerts at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. The incident occurred near where an American Airlines passenger plane and an Army Black Hawk helicopter crashed head-on in January, killing 67 people.

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What happened?

The FAA said several flight crews reported the mystery alerts on their Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) on Saturday, March 1.

The agency said the warnings were “indicating another aircraft was nearby when no other aircraft were in the area.”

The warnings happened as the planes were getting ready to land at the airport.

“Use caution,” one air traffic controller told an approaching flight. “Multiple arrivals today on final have reported TCAS RAs [resolution advisories] or TAs [traffic advisories] with unknown targets. There are no known aircraft or helicopter operations between you and the field.”

How did the incident impact flights?

The FAA said some pilots chose to abort their landings to be safe, in a maneuver called a “go-around,” similar to the one caught on camera at Chicago’s Midway Airport in February. In that incident, a Southwest Airlines passenger jet had to abort its landing at the last second to avoid hitting a smaller plane on the runway.

What was air traffic control’s role?

The Traffic Collision Avoidance System is separate from air traffic control. It searches nearby airspace via radio frequencies from other aircraft and uses them to help pilots navigate.

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Low altitudes during landing can cause problems with the system and there can be interference in radio signals. However, it’s not normal for so many planes to get the same false warnings in such a short period of time.