Air carrier at 5000 ft with dtw TRACON experienced TCAS RA; traffic was reported by ATC and sighted ...

Narrative:

We had a near miss collision with a small aircraft at 5;000 ft northwest of salem VOR at about 15 NM. We were instructed to maintain 5;000 ft in a high traffic area. ATC informed us of an aircraft at our 10 o'clock position traveling; in my opinion; southeast. TCAS showed the aircraft 300 ft below us. We were traveling 010 heading at this time. We spotted the traffic and reported it insight. ATC never responded. TCAS RA was to monitor vertical speed. Visual cue on vsi was not to descend. Then the aircraft made a left turn directly for us and began to climb. We followed RA to climb; and the aircraft flew directly below. I believe that the crew acted appropriately. ATC never responded to us at all. I believe he was under a heavier than normal workload. Three seconds later; the aircraft turned directly toward us; and we followed the TCAS resolution to make an abrupt climb. I reported to ATC we were climbing. They said 'roger; maintain 7;000.' I repeated the instruction and no further actions were taken.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier at 5000 FT with DTW TRACON experienced TCAS RA; traffic was reported by ATC and sighted by the flight crew; reporter-questioning lack of ATC response after traffic was reported in sight.

Narrative: We had a near miss collision with a small aircraft at 5;000 FT Northwest of Salem VOR at about 15 NM. We were instructed to maintain 5;000 FT in a high traffic area. ATC informed us of an aircraft at our 10 o'clock position traveling; in my opinion; southeast. TCAS showed the aircraft 300 FT below us. We were traveling 010 heading at this time. We spotted the traffic and reported it insight. ATC never responded. TCAS RA was to monitor vertical speed. Visual cue on VSI was not to descend. Then the aircraft made a left turn directly for us and began to climb. We followed RA to climb; and the aircraft flew directly below. I believe that the crew acted appropriately. ATC never responded to us at all. I believe he was under a heavier than normal workload. Three seconds later; the aircraft turned directly toward us; and we followed the TCAS Resolution to make an abrupt climb. I reported to ATC we were climbing. They said 'roger; maintain 7;000.' I repeated the instruction and no further actions were taken.

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	850112
Time
Date	200908
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	SAW.Airport
State Reference	MI
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Light Transport Low Wing 2 Turboprop Eng
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial
Events
Anomaly	Conflict NMAC
Miss Distance	Horizontal 100 Vertical 150

Air carrier at 5000 ft with dtw TRACON experienced TCAS RA; traffic was reported by ATC and sighted by the flight crew; reporter-questioning lack of ATC response after traffic was reported in sight.