B737 captain reports being cleared direct dekal and the DEKAL2 arrival to fll. This clearance is tak...

Attributes
ACN	934388
Time
Date	201102
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZMA.ARTCC
State Reference	FL
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 129
Flight Phase	Descent
Route In Use	Vectors STAR DEKAL2
Flight Plan	IFR
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	ATR 72
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Climb
Route In Use	Vectors
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Multiengine
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 70 Flight Crew Total 6000 Flight Crew Type 600
Events
Anomaly	Conflict Airborne Conflict Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude Deviation - Procedural Clearance
Miss Distance	Horizontal 5000 Vertical 700

Narrative:

We were in our descent into the miami area when we were instructed by ATC to fly heading 360 and descend to 14;000 ft. We were also told about an ATR 72 that was maintaining 13;000 ft; east bound and that it would cross from our left to right. We were on the lookout for the ATR and never had it on TCAS. We had three other aircraft on TCAS but never the ATR. After a few minutes we had a frequency change to miami center and we were cleared direct to dekal intersection and the DEKAL2 arrival. At this moment we hadn't reached 14;000 ft yet. Since we were cleared DEKAL2 arrival and we were never told to maintain 14;000 ft until further advised we proceeded to select 5;000 ft on our altitude window to continue our descent according to the published DEKAL2 arrival. Monitoring the TCAS on our navigation display we saw nothing at all whatsoever in our vicinity when suddenly looking out our windshield we saw the ATR pass by close to the right side; almost on an opposite heading. I want to reiterate that we didn't have traffic alert or resolution advisory corresponding to the proximity of the ATR. This occurred as we were descending through 13;700 ft with the ATR maintaining 13;000 ft. ATC called us asking what altitude we were leaving and advising us that the ATR was already behind us. The controller then told us that our instruction was to maintain 14;000 ft and that we could continue down to 5;000 ft. We were given a phone number to call mia center upon arrival at kfll; which we did.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737 Captain reports being cleared direct DEKAL and the DEKAL2 arrival to FLL. This clearance is taken as a clearance to descend to the expected altitude at DEKAL; causing a conflict with an opposite direction ATR 72.

Narrative: We were in our descent into the Miami area when we were instructed by ATC to fly heading 360 and descend to 14;000 FT. We were also told about an ATR 72 that was maintaining 13;000 FT; east bound and that it would cross from our left to right. We were on the lookout for the ATR and never had it on TCAS. We had three other aircraft on TCAS but never the ATR. After a few minutes we had a frequency change to Miami Center and we were cleared direct to DEKAL Intersection and the DEKAL2 arrival. At this moment we hadn't reached 14;000 FT yet. Since we were cleared DEKAL2 arrival and we were never told to maintain 14;000 FT until further advised we proceeded to select 5;000 FT on our altitude window to continue our descent according to the published DEKAL2 arrival. Monitoring the TCAS on our NAV display we saw nothing at all whatsoever in our vicinity when suddenly looking out our windshield we saw the ATR pass by close to the right side; almost on an opposite heading. I want to reiterate that we didn't have traffic alert or resolution advisory corresponding to the proximity of the ATR. This occurred as we were descending through 13;700 FT with the ATR maintaining 13;000 FT. ATC called us asking what altitude we were leaving and advising us that the ATR was already behind us. The controller then told us that our instruction was to maintain 14;000 FT and that we could continue down to 5;000 FT. We were given a phone number to call MIA CENTER upon arrival at KFLL; which we did.

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.

B737 captain reports being cleared direct dekal and the DEKAL2 arrival to fll. This clearance is taken as a clearance to descend to the expected altitude at dekal; causing a conflict with an opposite direction ATR 72.