CRJ700 first officer on a visual approach to runway 30R at msp experiences a TCAS alert for traffic ...

Narrative:

We were coming in to msp and were at 4;000 ft direct jacko (FAF) and were cleared for a visual approach. When in position to do so; I started a descent to the initial approach altitude; 3;000 ft and I planned my descent so I should get down to 3;000 ft just by jacko and catch the glide slope there. Coming down to 3;000 ft; we configured the aircraft and just by jacko I got TCAS alert 'traffic; traffic'. There were a lot of aircraft in the air and I could see a yellow one; just on top of us on my screen; which was set to a 10 miles radius. I could see it showed a '+'; and it looked like he was descending. Initially we didn't know if the other aircraft just had overshot his localizer; due to the strong cross wind from the west. I asked my captain if he had a visual on it; because it seemed it was slightly on our left side. He looked out and got back to me and said it was right above us and he commanded me to; 'descend; descend'. I disconnected the autopilot and lowered the nose and momentarily got below glide slope until the situation got resolved. At the same time my captain called ATC and they got back to the other aircraft and told him he was lined up on the wrong runway. He should have been on 30L. Two major factors: 1. The other aircraft was lined up on the wrong runway. 2. Initially; it seemed ATC mistakenly thought the other aircraft was a MD80; which was 3 miles behind.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CRJ700 First Officer on a visual approach to Runway 30R at MSP experiences a TCAS alert for traffic descending from above. ATC is advised and the other aircraft is informed that should be lined up with 30L.

Narrative: We were coming in to MSP and were at 4;000 FT direct JACKO (FAF) and were cleared for a visual approach. When in position to do so; I started a descent to the initial approach altitude; 3;000 FT and I planned my descent so I should get down to 3;000 FT just by JACKO and catch the glide slope there. Coming down to 3;000 FT; we configured the aircraft and just by JACKO I got TCAS alert 'traffic; traffic'. There were a lot of aircraft in the air and I could see a yellow one; just on top of us on my screen; which was set to a 10 miles radius. I could see it showed a '+'; and it looked like he was descending. Initially we didn't know if the other aircraft just had overshot his LOC; due to the strong cross wind from the west. I asked my Captain if he had a visual on it; because it seemed it was slightly on our left side. He looked out and got back to me and said it was right above us and he commanded me to; 'descend; descend'. I disconnected the autopilot and lowered the nose and momentarily got below glide slope until the situation got resolved. At the same time my captain called ATC and they got back to the other aircraft and told him he was lined up on the wrong runway. He should have been on 30L. Two major factors: 1. the other aircraft was lined up on the wrong runway. 2. Initially; it seemed ATC mistakenly thought the other aircraft was a MD80; which was 3 miles behind.

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	986241
Time
Date	201112
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	M98.TRACON
State Reference	MN
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Regional Jet 700 ER/LR (CRJ700)
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	Regional Jet CL65 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 134 Flight Crew Total 7354 Flight Crew Type 1868
Events
Anomaly	Conflict NMAC
Miss Distance	Horizontal 0 Vertical 200

CRJ700 first officer on a visual approach to runway 30R at msp experiences a TCAS alert for traffic descending from above. ATC is advised and the other aircraft is informed that should be lined up with 30L.