Improving the Resolution Advisory Reversal Logic of the Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System

The Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS II) is the worldwide standard system for manned aircraft to avoid collisions with airborne transponder-equipped traffic. A safety vulnerability of the collision avoidance logic was reported by European analysts, who also proposed a change to correct it. The safety issue concerns limitations in the ability of TCAS to reverse the sense of a Resolution Advisory (RA) during an encounter. The issue was addressed by a team of experts1 in the Requirements Working Group (RWG) of RTCA Special Committee 147 [1]. This paper discusses the problem, the metrics and methods used in the analysis, and presents results that quantify the effectiveness of the proposed solution. Finally, recommendations are presented for implementing the change.