Narrative:

[We] were returning from photo mission in the gulf of mexico; in the area of naite intersection to hdc. Due to thunderstorms in the area and confined traffic flow in and out of msy; new orleans approach control was giving vectors and altitude assignments to [us] even though we were VFR and flight following. The eastern area controller assigned [us] a heading of 280 and restricted altitude to 8500 ft. The controller then handed us off to the western controller who gave us a descent but no change in heading. Upon spinning the vertical speed into the autopilot I noticed another aircraft; depicted as a blue diamond; coming from the south on TCAS. TCAS showed the other aircraft at about 5 miles at -1600 ft below us climbing. I changed the TCAS range from 12 miles to 6 mile range. The [TCAS then] showed the aircraft depicted as an amber diamond with an audible warning of 'traffic' at 3 miles and -600 feet below us climbing. The [TCAS then] showed the aircraft at -300 at about 1 mile as a red diamond with a resolution advisory depicting as descent resolution only. At this point the autopilot was turned off the aircraft was banked into a right hand turn and a descent of in excess of 2000 feet per minute was initiated. The TCAS [then] showed the red diamond on top of us with a '00' altitude shown. We rolled out of the turn on a 010 heading at 3500 feet. After a minute or so a new controller came on the frequency and gave us 'own nav to hammond contact hammond tower.' no mention was heard of traffic to us or the other aircraft. [We] landed at hdc without incident. After review open source radar tracks we believe the other aircraft was a CRJ900. My first officer who only got a glance at the other aircraft as were in our turning descent stated that was real close and the other aircraft looked like an md-80; but couldn't be sure since it happened so quick.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Dash 8 Captain reported an NMAC in the vicinity of MSY airport.

Narrative: [We] were returning from photo mission in the Gulf of Mexico; in the area of NAITE intersection to HDC. Due to thunderstorms in the area and confined traffic flow in and out of MSY; New Orleans approach control was giving vectors and altitude assignments to [us] even though we were VFR and flight following. The Eastern Area Controller assigned [us] a heading of 280 and restricted altitude to 8500 ft. The controller then handed us off to the Western Controller who gave us a descent but no change in heading. Upon spinning the vertical speed into the autopilot I noticed another aircraft; depicted as a blue diamond; coming from the south on TCAS. TCAS showed the other aircraft at about 5 miles at -1600 ft below us climbing. I changed the TCAS range from 12 miles to 6 mile range. The [TCAS then] showed the aircraft depicted as an amber diamond with an audible warning of 'traffic' at 3 miles and -600 feet below us climbing. The [TCAS then] showed the aircraft at -300 at about 1 mile as a red diamond with a Resolution Advisory depicting as descent resolution only. At this point the autopilot was turned off the aircraft was banked into a right hand turn and a descent of in excess of 2000 feet per minute was initiated. The TCAS [then] showed the red diamond on top of us with a '00' altitude shown. We rolled out of the turn on a 010 heading at 3500 feet. After a minute or so a new Controller came on the frequency and gave us 'Own nav to Hammond contact Hammond Tower.' No mention was heard of traffic to us or the other aircraft. [We] landed at HDC without incident. After review open source radar tracks we believe the other aircraft was a CRJ900. My First Officer who only got a glance at the other aircraft as were in our turning descent stated that was real close and the other aircraft looked like an MD-80; but couldn't be sure since it happened so quick.

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.