An A330 flight crew on an ILS approach received and complied with an apparently phantom TCAS TA and ...

Attributes
ACN	938196
Time
Date	201103
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	PHL.Airport
State Reference	PA
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	A330
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS)
Person 1
Function	Pilot Not Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude Deviation - Procedural Clearance

Narrative:

While coupled to the ILS just inside jalto we received a TA and looked for traffic at the depicted one O'clock and approximately two miles position but saw nothing. We received a RA a few seconds later and it depicted the target at perhaps a mile and 400 ft below.autopilot and FD were disconnected and we rose above the glide slope to maintain the RA required vertical speed. The target seemed to follow us and became amber. No traffic was seen by us and the tower never advised us of any traffic conflict. It seemed to be a ghost target as it stayed with us. The only known traffic to us at the time was an rj landing on RWY26 in front of us initially by three and one half miles.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An A330 flight crew on an ILS approach received and complied with an apparently phantom TCAS TA and RA.

Narrative: While coupled to the ILS just inside JALTO we received a TA and looked for traffic at the depicted one O'clock and approximately two miles position BUT saw nothing. We received a RA a few seconds later and it depicted the target at perhaps a mile and 400 FT below.Autopilot and FD were disconnected and we rose above the glide slope to maintain the RA required vertical speed. The target seemed to follow us and became amber. No traffic was seen by us and the Tower never advised us of any traffic conflict. It seemed to be a ghost target as it stayed with us. The only known traffic to us at the time was an RJ landing on RWY26 in front of us initially by three and one half miles.

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.