B757 flight crew experiences near midair collision TCAS RA 25 NM west of teb at 5500 feet and takes ...

Narrative:

On assigned vector from approach control heading 360 to 5000 ft I noticed traffic on the TCAS 7 miles away at the 10 o'clock position with a constant bearing; decreasing range. Traffic was at 5500 ft and descending and not called by ATC. At 5 miles separation we picked up traffic visually and received a TA. At 3 miles separation we got an RA to descend at 1000 FPM. We turned off the autopilot and descended as directed. We called ATC to question the traffic when we received the TA and then again when we got the RA. The controller then cleared us to 4000 ft; but we were already descending. We passed directly under a small red biplane with 400 ft of vertical separation. We were at 4300 ft and the biplane was about 4700 ft. We were both descending. The biplane was heading east and continued to descend after he passed above us. We had the traffic in sight the whole time; but I am not sure he ever saw us. We were assigned a speed of 210 KTS at this time. The controller asked if we were going to report this and I told him yes. We continued in to land uneventfully.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B757 Flight Crew experiences NMAC TCAS RA 25 NM west of TEB at 5500 feet and takes evasive action. Traffic; which turned out to be a biplane; was not called by ATC.

Narrative: On assigned vector from Approach Control heading 360 to 5000 FT I noticed traffic on the TCAS 7 miles away at the 10 o'clock position with a constant bearing; decreasing range. Traffic was at 5500 FT and descending and not called by ATC. At 5 miles separation we picked up traffic visually and received a TA. At 3 miles separation we got an RA to descend at 1000 FPM. We turned off the autopilot and descended as directed. We called ATC to question the traffic when we received the TA and then again when we got the RA. The Controller then cleared us to 4000 FT; but we were already descending. We passed directly under a small red biplane with 400 FT of vertical separation. We were at 4300 FT and the biplane was about 4700 FT. We were both descending. The biplane was heading east and continued to descend after he passed above us. We had the traffic in sight the whole time; but I am not sure he ever saw us. We were assigned a speed of 210 KTS at this time. The Controller asked if we were going to report this and I told him yes. We continued in to land uneventfully.

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.

Attributes
ACN	857294
Time
Date	200910
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	EWR.Airport
State Reference	NJ
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B757-200
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Route In Use	Vectors
Flight Plan	IFR
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	Small Aircraft
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Descent
Person 1
Function	Pilot Not Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Person 2
Function	Pilot Flying First Officer
Events
Anomaly	Conflict NMAC
Miss Distance	Horizontal 0 Vertical 400

B757 flight crew experiences near midair collision TCAS RA 25 NM west of teb at 5500 feet and takes evasive action. Traffic; which turned out to be a biplane; was not called by ATC.