Narrative:

Day VFR flight into phl. We called the field and traffic to follow in sight and we were cleared to follow the traffic ahead for a visual approach to runway 27R and to hold 170 KTS until a 5 mile final. When on the visual approach; we heard tower ask another carrier's rj if he had us in sight and that he needed to slow because he had a 100 KT overtake with us. While on an approximate 1-2 miles final; I heard tower tell the rj that the spacing was not going to work and that he needed to go around. We were expecting to see the rj pass over us from behind. We were unaware that the rj was making a visual approach to the perpendicular runway 35. Approaching about 200 ft AGL; I suddenly saw the rj approaching us from the left; slightly above and on a rapidly converging angle. We were not expecting to see them at that location and were very startled. If we had gone around or were high for some unknown reason; the result would have been disastrous. I elected to not say anything to the first officer so as to not distract her in the flare. The rj passed directly over us while in the flare. Tower never told us of their location nor offered any explanation after landing and we did not inquire. Several solutions to this situation come to mind: fist; I feel tower should have broken the rj off the approach a little earlier. Second; I don't know if tower gave the rj any sort of go around instruction; however; it would have been better to divert them away from our flight path. Third; it would have been nice to know of the location of the close traffic before we were in the flare.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B737 Captain landing on Runway 27R at PHL reported an aircraft going around from the perpendicular Runway 35 passed closely overhead his aircraft; stating if he had gone around the result would have been disastrous.

Narrative: Day VFR flight into PHL. We called the field and traffic to follow in sight and we were cleared to follow the traffic ahead for a visual approach to Runway 27R and to hold 170 KTS until a 5 mile final. When on the visual approach; we heard Tower ask another carrier's RJ if he had us in sight and that he needed to slow because he had a 100 KT overtake with us. While on an approximate 1-2 miles final; I heard Tower tell the RJ that the spacing was not going to work and that he needed to go around. We were expecting to see the RJ pass over us from behind. We were unaware that the RJ was making a visual approach to the perpendicular Runway 35. Approaching about 200 FT AGL; I suddenly saw the RJ approaching us from the left; slightly above and on a rapidly converging angle. We were not expecting to see them at that location and were very startled. If we had gone around or were high for some unknown reason; the result would have been disastrous. I elected to not say anything to the First Officer so as to not distract her in the flare. The RJ passed directly over us while in the flare. Tower never told us of their location nor offered any explanation after landing and we did not inquire. Several solutions to this situation come to mind: Fist; I feel Tower should have broken the RJ off the approach a little earlier. Second; I don't know if Tower gave the RJ any sort of go around instruction; however; it would have been better to divert them away from our flight path. Third; it would have been nice to know of the location of the close traffic before we were in the flare.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.