B737 captain reports being given a heading and cleared to 17;000 ft by departure control after takeo...

Narrative:

After takeoff departure control gave us a north northwest left turn heading and clearance to climb to 17;000 ft. While in the climb; I noticed an incoming aircraft at a higher altitude and approximately out of 7;000 ft; we got a TCAS TA. I transmitted on VHF number one that I had the aircraft in sight. After my transmission; we received a descending TCAS RA and departure control asked us to stop the climb and level at 8;000 ft. By the time ATC had finished this transmission; we were passing approximately 8;800 ft. We complied with the TCAS RA first until we heard the clear of conflict voice from the TCAS system and then complied with ATC instructions. Later on; I inquired about our previous climbing clearance and she stated that she did not recall giving us a clearance to climb and that there was no problem because there was never a loss of separation between the aircraft. To this I replied to her that we both heard the climbing clearance and replied back with the climbing clearance to 17;000 ft. From the point of view from the cockpit; it appeared that there could have been a lateral loss of separation between the two aircraft had we not called the traffic in sight and complied with TCAS RA.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737 Captain reports being given a heading and cleared to 17;000 FT by Departure Control after takeoff. Passing 7;000 FT a TCAS TA is followed quickly by an RA. ATC indicates that a clearance to 17;000 FT was never issued.

Narrative: After takeoff Departure Control gave us a north northwest left turn heading and clearance to climb to 17;000 FT. While in the climb; I noticed an incoming aircraft at a higher altitude and approximately out of 7;000 FT; we got a TCAS TA. I transmitted on VHF number one that I had the aircraft in sight. After my transmission; we received a descending TCAS RA and Departure Control asked us to stop the climb and level at 8;000 FT. By the time ATC had finished this transmission; we were passing approximately 8;800 FT. We complied with the TCAS RA first until we heard the clear of conflict voice from the TCAS system and then complied with ATC instructions. Later on; I inquired about our previous climbing clearance and she stated that she did not recall giving us a clearance to climb and that there was no problem because there was never a loss of separation between the aircraft. To this I replied to her that we both heard the climbing clearance and replied back with the climbing clearance to 17;000 FT. From the point of view from the cockpit; it appeared that there could have been a lateral loss of separation between the two aircraft had we not called the traffic in sight and complied with TCAS RA.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 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	1083191
Time
Date	201304
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737-300
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Climb
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 205
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Conflict Airborne Conflict Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude Deviation - Procedural Other / Unknown

B737 captain reports being given a heading and cleared to 17;000 ft by departure control after takeoff. Passing 7;000 ft a TCAS TA is followed quickly by an RA. ATC indicates that a clearance to 17;000 ft was never issued.