Narrative:

On a flight to fty; we had just crossed trbow on the TRBOW8 arrival into fty. It was a clear day with good visibility. We were then assigned a descent from 11;000 ft to 6;000 ft and a right turn to a 350 heading. On the new heading we were notified of VFR traffic at our 12 o'clock southbound at 8;300 ft; which did not yet show up on our TCAS. We were advised to hurry on down to 6;000 ft for traffic. I advise we were looking for the traffic; but not yet in sight and that we were hurrying down to 6;000 ft. We were then immediately notified of additional traffic at our 10 o'clock; which I advised that we had the second guy on TCAS and asked again where the first guy was because we still did not have him in sight. We were then told that the first guy was now 12 o'clock and 5 miles still at 8;300 ft and to expedite down to 6;000 ft. I said that we were still looking and we would expedite down; which we were already doing. As we descended through 9;000 ft; ATC told us that we could just level off instead to avoid that traffic. At that moment; we received a RA to 'climb; climb'. The first officer; who was the pilot flying; disconnected the autopilot and immediately responded to the aural and visual cues to climb per the RA. As we returned up to 9;000 ft; we finally got the traffic insight passing under us out our left window. On the mfd (multi-function display); I saw the traffic come with in 400 ft vertically of us as we reversed our descent in order to establish a climb. I believe this was caused by the other aircraft being VFR and skirting the outer edge of atlanta's B airspace at a usual altitude of 8;300 ft without talking to atlanta approach. It looked to be a single engine plane; possible an air tractor. This occurrence happened right at the outer edge of the B airspace. It also could have been prevented by the controller if he had given us a vector to avoid the traffic or if he had given us a level off sooner than he did.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An Air Taxi jet crew approaching FTY reported a near miss with a single engine aircraft while descending through 8600 FT. The VFR aircraft was on the outer edge of ATL Class B airspace.

Narrative: On a flight to FTY; we had just crossed TRBOW on the TRBOW8 arrival into FTY. It was a clear day with good visibility. We were then assigned a descent from 11;000 FT to 6;000 FT and a right turn to a 350 heading. On the new heading we were notified of VFR traffic at our 12 o'clock southbound at 8;300 FT; which did not yet show up on our TCAS. We were advised to hurry on down to 6;000 FT for traffic. I advise we were looking for the traffic; but not yet in sight and that we were hurrying down to 6;000 FT. We were then immediately notified of additional traffic at our 10 o'clock; which I advised that we had the second guy on TCAS and asked again where the first guy was because we still did not have him in sight. We were then told that the first guy was now 12 o'clock and 5 miles still at 8;300 FT and to expedite down to 6;000 FT. I said that we were still looking and we would expedite down; which we were already doing. As we descended through 9;000 FT; ATC told us that we could just level off instead to avoid that traffic. At that moment; we received a RA to 'climb; climb'. The First Officer; who was the pilot flying; disconnected the autopilot and immediately responded to the aural and visual cues to climb per the RA. As we returned up to 9;000 FT; we finally got the traffic insight passing under us out our left window. On the MFD (multi-function display); I saw the traffic come with in 400 FT vertically of us as we reversed our descent in order to establish a climb. I believe this was caused by the other aircraft being VFR and skirting the outer edge of Atlanta's B airspace at a usual altitude of 8;300 FT without talking to Atlanta Approach. It looked to be a single engine plane; possible an Air Tractor. This occurrence happened right at the outer edge of the B airspace. It also could have been prevented by the Controller if he had given us a vector to avoid the traffic or if he had given us a level off sooner than he 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.