Narrative:

This is no violation but a concern on the TCAS MEL. A while back; I was on final approach in lga and had an aircraft with the TCAS MEL'd. At about 1;000 feet the controller told us to level off immediately and look for traffic. We didn't see any traffic because we were IMC. Once we landed; the tower controller asked if we got a north number on the traffic. Both my copilot and I were wishing that we had TCAS operating and not MEL'd. Last week we were getting ready to takeoff. Again I had the TCAS MEL on this aircraft. Thank goodness we were given a ground stop. It was later discovered that our destination airport TRACON had smoke or fire in there building and they had to evacuate. This got me thinking that if we took off and were airborne; I could have been in the same boat with no ATC; no radar; and no TCAS; and potentially in IMC conditions. Then just a couple days ago on the news I hear 2 757's coming out of ZZZ1 were both assigned same altitude and got TCAS warnings. I'll bet the crews and passengers were happy that the TCAS was not MEL'd. So with that in mind the TCAS MEL is currently a CAT B 3 days or 72 hours. I feel this is way to long and has a serious effect on safety. I'm wondering how many other crews that have the TCAS MEL are getting situations were they wish they had a working TCAS. I'm hoping that the FAA can take another look at the TCAS MEL and review its CAT B status.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CRJ-700 Captain describes an IMC airborne conflict with an unknown; unseen aircraft on approach to LGA. The reporter believes the 72 hours CAT B repair allowance is too long without an operable TCAS.

Narrative: This is no violation but a concern on the TCAS MEL. A while back; I was on final approach in LGA and had an aircraft with the TCAS MEL'd. At about 1;000 feet the Controller told us to level off immediately and look for traffic. We didn't see any traffic because we were IMC. Once we landed; the Tower Controller asked if we got a N number on the traffic. Both my copilot and I were wishing that we had TCAS operating and not MEL'd. Last week we were getting ready to takeoff. Again I had the TCAS MEL on this aircraft. Thank goodness we were given a ground stop. It was later discovered that our destination airport TRACON had smoke or fire in there building and they had to evacuate. This got me thinking that if we took off and were airborne; I could have been in the same boat with NO ATC; NO RADAR; and NO TCAS; and potentially in IMC conditions. Then just a couple days ago on the news I hear 2 757's coming out of ZZZ1 were both assigned same altitude and got TCAS warnings. I'll bet the crews and passengers were happy that the TCAS was not MEL'd. So with that in mind the TCAS MEL is currently a CAT B 3 days or 72 hours. I feel this is way to long and has a serious effect on safety. I'm wondering how many other crews that have the TCAS MEL are getting situations were they wish they had a working TCAS. I'm hoping that the FAA can take another look at the TCAS MEL and review its CAT B status.

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.