Narrative:

An airplane departed before us and was cleared to fly 210 heading after departure. We were cleared for takeoff; runway heading. Passing 1;000 feet tower turned us to 230 heading and we called departure. Departure cleared us to 9;000 feet and in a few minutes turned us to a 210 heading. He mentioned that when we passed 8;000 we could expect a turn to ditch. At some point he turned us to heading 190. I was hand flying and increased rate through 8;000 and departure said something to the effect that traffic was no factor; cleared to ditch. Sometime between 8;000 and 9;000 I engaged autopilot. Approaching 9;000 TCAS called 'traffic' and within a few seconds called 'descend; descend'. I disengaged autopilot; called for flight directors off and flew to the green vertical speed commanded which was about 2;000fpm down; maybe more. Around 8;400 feet TCAS commanded monitor vertical speed then clear of conflict. The first officer looked outside for traffic but due clouds saw nothing. He reported that on the navigation display the traffic was very close; less than .25 miles and showed 100 feet above. We resumed the climb and ATC cleared us to 12;000.I have no idea why this occurred. The crew; all three of us; felt we flew that we were cleared lateral and vertical path described above.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An air carrier crew departed PHL in IMC and near 9;000 feet followed a TCAS RA generated by a very close airborne conflict with another air carrier aircraft which had departed before them.

Narrative: An airplane departed before us and was cleared to fly 210 heading after departure. We were cleared for takeoff; runway heading. Passing 1;000 feet Tower turned us to 230 heading and we called Departure. Departure cleared us to 9;000 feet and in a few minutes turned us to a 210 heading. He mentioned that when we passed 8;000 we could expect a turn to DITCH. At some point he turned us to heading 190. I was hand flying and increased rate through 8;000 and Departure said something to the effect that traffic was no factor; cleared to DITCH. Sometime between 8;000 and 9;000 I engaged autopilot. Approaching 9;000 TCAS called 'traffic' and within a few seconds called 'descend; descend'. I disengaged autopilot; called for Flight directors off and flew to the green Vertical Speed commanded which was about 2;000fpm down; maybe more. Around 8;400 feet TCAS commanded monitor vertical speed then clear of conflict. The First Officer looked outside for traffic but due clouds saw nothing. He reported that on the Navigation Display the traffic was very close; less than .25 miles and showed 100 feet above. We resumed the climb and ATC cleared us to 12;000.I have no idea why this occurred. The crew; all three of us; felt we flew that we were cleared lateral and vertical path described above.

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.