A321 flight crew reported responding to an RA from VFR traffic transiting dfw airspace apparently wi...

Narrative:

Regional approach had just let us descend to 4000 ft on final to 13R. We were just about a mile west of morry fix when approach cleared us for a visual approach. My first officer was just starting to descend to 3000 ft when I noticed a TCAS target appear approximately 3 miles southeast of our position. It was below our altitude and roughly 500 ft below our current altitude of 3800 ft. I told my first officer to stop the descent at which point as the target got close we received a climb TCAS RA. At the same time approach then called a target to us and I told approach we were responding to a TCAS RA. The VFR aircraft passed at our 12 position roughly 300 ft below us. Approach asked if we still had the runway in sight and we were cleared the visual approach and switched us to tower. Before leaving frequency I asked approach if that was a VFR aircraft he declared yes; but didn't seem concerned! I still would like to know why or how this VFR aircraft was able to fly at that altitude inside our approach to 13R without anyone doing something. Regional approach was swamped with the time of arrivals to dfw and very task saturated. However someone needs to research who the VFR pilot was and track them down and teach them dfw airspace restrictions.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A321 flight crew reported responding to an RA from VFR traffic transiting DFW airspace apparently without clearance.

Narrative: Regional Approach had just let us descend to 4000 ft on final to 13R. We were just about a mile west of MORRY fix when Approach cleared us for a visual approach. My FO was just starting to descend to 3000 ft when I noticed a TCAS target appear approximately 3 miles southeast of our position. It was below our altitude and roughly 500 ft below our current altitude of 3800 ft. I told my FO to stop the descent at which point as the target got close we received a Climb TCAS RA. At the same time approach then called a target to us and I told approach we were responding to a TCAS RA. The VFR Aircraft passed at our 12 position roughly 300 ft below us. Approach asked if we still had the runway in sight and we were cleared the visual approach and switched us to tower. Before leaving frequency I asked Approach if that was a VFR aircraft he declared yes; but didn't seem concerned! I still would like to know why or how this VFR aircraft was able to fly at that altitude inside our approach to 13R without anyone doing something. Regional Approach was swamped with the time of arrivals to DFW and very task saturated. However someone needs to research who the VFR pilot was and track them down and teach them DFW airspace restrictions.

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.

Attributes
ACN	1423752
Time
Date	201702
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	DFW.Airport
State Reference	TX
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	A321
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	Any Unknown or Unlisted Aircraft Manufacturer
Flight Phase	Cruise
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Person 2
Function	First Officer Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Conflict Airborne Conflict

A321 flight crew reported responding to an RA from VFR traffic transiting dfw airspace apparently without clearance.