Narrative:

Approaching [the airport] on a short 30 minute flight; we were assigned a different runway than previously briefed as we descended through FL180. It was then that the first mistake was made; the proper ILS frequency was 111.55 and I had tuned in 111.50. The mistake went unnoticed. ATC asked us to expedite down through 4;000 feet; slow down to 180 as well as report traffic; and cleared us direct to the fix prior to the penultimate fix on the ILS. We were told to expect the visual as they were no longer doing the prm's as reported on the ATIS. At the time I did not feel task saturated; however; in retrospect that along with the accelerated time frame did prevent me from catching my mistake and noticing something wasn't right. In FMS mode approaching the fix we were given a heading following an aircraft and cleared for the visual. I pressed heading; checked frequency which I thought was correct; switched to green needles and pressed approach mode. I glanced down to verify the FMA to notice that the FMA showed LOC1 armed but no GS armed; and noticed there was a red GS flag and a red localizer and noticed the localizer not capturing or identified as I expected it to. We were already close to extended centerline so I turned the heading bug when I noticed the localizer was not capturing; for a better intercept as the traffic we were following was at a safe distance; but I noticed the rate was too slow and we were passing the extended centerline closing in on traffic on the parallel runway. I immediately disconnected the autopilot and began a right turn back on course. We received the traffic RA to monitor vertical speed and followed it per SOP while getting back on course. At the same time tower called us to make an immediate turn southbound for traffic. We advised we already corrected and were getting back on course. We returned back to centerline and continued the approach without incident. We were stabilized as we were still well outside the final approach fix.the primary cause was my failure to not disconnect the automation as soon as I saw something was not right and fly the airplane. Especially since it was VMC and cleared for the visual. I focused my attention inside instead of outside. I failed to recognize the localizer was not tuned in. Contributing factors were the accelerated time frame in which this happened and task saturation. This gave us little to no time to verify our frequencies; see abnormal indications; etc. One last small contributing factor was my need to use the bathroom; but unable to do so due to the short duration of the flight which slightly took away from my concentration. When flying a visual and wishing to use automation; the visual is number 1; the automation is there to help me only; not fly for me. I became a child of the magenta [line] and failed to just look outside and fly.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CRJ-200 flight crew reported that reliance on backup automation with a mis-tuned localizer resulted in a course deviation and traffic conflict.

Narrative: Approaching [the airport] on a short 30 minute flight; we were assigned a different runway than previously briefed as we descended through FL180. It was then that the first mistake was made; the proper ILS frequency was 111.55 and I had tuned in 111.50. The mistake went unnoticed. ATC asked us to expedite down through 4;000 feet; slow down to 180 as well as report traffic; and cleared us direct to the fix prior to the penultimate fix on the ILS. We were told to expect the visual as they were no longer doing the PRM's as reported on the ATIS. At the time I did not feel task saturated; however; in retrospect that along with the accelerated time frame did prevent me from catching my mistake and noticing something wasn't right. In FMS mode approaching the fix we were given a heading following an aircraft and cleared for the visual. I pressed heading; checked frequency which I thought was correct; switched to green needles and pressed approach mode. I glanced down to verify the FMA to notice that the FMA showed LOC1 armed but no GS armed; and noticed there was a RED GS flag and a red LOC and noticed the localizer not capturing or identified as I expected it to. We were already close to extended centerline so I turned the heading bug when I noticed the LOC was not capturing; for a better intercept as the traffic we were following was at a safe distance; but I noticed the rate was too slow and we were passing the extended centerline closing in on traffic on the parallel runway. I immediately disconnected the autopilot and began a right turn back on course. We received the Traffic RA to Monitor Vertical speed and followed it per SOP while getting back on course. At the same time Tower called us to make an immediate turn southbound for traffic. We advised we already corrected and were getting back on course. We returned back to centerline and continued the approach without incident. We were stabilized as we were still well outside the final approach fix.The primary cause was my failure to not disconnect the automation as soon as I saw something was not right and fly the airplane. Especially since it was VMC and cleared for the visual. I focused my attention inside instead of outside. I failed to recognize the Localizer was not tuned in. Contributing factors were the accelerated time frame in which this happened and task saturation. This gave us little to no time to verify our frequencies; see abnormal indications; etc. One last small contributing factor was my need to use the bathroom; but unable to do so due to the short duration of the flight which slightly took away from my concentration. When flying a visual and wishing to use automation; the visual is number 1; the automation is there to help me only; not fly for me. I became a child of the magenta [line] and failed to just look outside and fly.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.