Airbus widebody flight crew reported receiving an RA during descent into msy; noting that ATC failed...

Attributes
ACN	1281587
Time
Date	201507
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	MSY.TRACON
State Reference	LA
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Airbus Industrie Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Descent
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Person 2
Function	Pilot Not Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Conflict Airborne Conflict Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude

Narrative:

We were descending to 6;000 feet on a vector of 170 about 30 miles north of msy. Passing 10;000 feet at 1;000 fpm we got an RA for traffic 900 feet below us. I immediately followed the commands of the RA which called for a climb; passing about 10200 feet; we received a clear of conflict call out. We informed ATC of the RA and that we were climbing. ATC acknowledged and said we were cleared to continue our descent. We continued to msy for an uneventful landing.failure of ATC to call out traffic and giving us a clearance through an altitude which was occupied by another aircraft. Also failure of the TCAS to give a traffic call out for which we may have been able to level off and prevent the RA.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Airbus widebody flight crew reported receiving an RA during descent into MSY; noting that ATC failed to advise them of traffic.

Narrative: We were descending to 6;000 feet on a vector of 170 about 30 miles north of MSY. Passing 10;000 feet at 1;000 fpm we got an RA for traffic 900 feet below us. I immediately followed the commands of the RA which called for a climb; passing about 10200 feet; we received a clear of conflict call out. We informed ATC of the RA and that we were climbing. ATC acknowledged and said we were cleared to continue our descent. We continued to MSY for an uneventful landing.Failure of ATC to call out traffic and giving us a clearance through an altitude which was occupied by another aircraft. Also failure of the TCAS to give a traffic call out for which we may have been able to level off and prevent the RA.

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.

Airbus widebody flight crew reported receiving an RA during descent into msy; noting that ATC failed to advise them of traffic.