The FAA is investigating how two CRJ-900s came close enough to trigger a TCAS alert in Syracuse on 8 July. The incident involved an arriving PSA Airlines (operating for American Eagle) flight and a departing Endeavor Air (operating for Delta Connection) flight. Both aircraft arrived at their destinations safely.
Wait, who’s cleared for takeoff!?
PSA Airlines flight 5511 was cleared to land on Syracuse’s Runway 28 by the tower controller and confirmed that clearance. Shortly after, the tower cleared Endeavor 5421 to depart Runway 28 as well. According to air traffic control audio captured by LiveATC.net, the crew of PSA flight 5511 expressed surprise at that clearance, stating, “Wait, who’s cleared for takeoff on 28!?”
Moments later the tower controller instructs the PSA flight to go around, while the Endeavor flight continues its takeoff roll. Both aircraft reached the end of the runway at approximately the same time, with the PSA Airlines CRJ-900 directly over the Endeavor flight for a moment. The Endeavor flight turned right while climbing as the PSA flight continued on the runway heading. As the Endeavor flight continued to climb, and though the aircraft were now moving away from each other, TCAS on both aircraft activated. The TCAS RA is evident in the granular ADS-B data (linked below) as well as the air traffic control audio, with the PSA crew announcing, “Responding to an RA, uh, now we’re clear, 5511.”
At the time TCAS activated the aircraft were approximately 1267 feet apart laterally and 350 feet apart vertically and moving away from each other.
Data available for download
Flightradar24 ADS-B data available for download includes the CSV and KML files with standard data frequency for the full path of each flight. We have also included the granular, high-frequency data for the relevant portions of both flights.
