EMB ERJ 140 ER/LR
Flight Crew Commercial
ATC Issue All Types; Conflict Airborne Conflict
Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
Human Factors; Procedure
I was the pilot not flying while on the descent and flying a heading. ATC notified us that there would be an opposite direction Embraer flying through our altitude; and asked if we had it in sight at 12 o'clock. The Captain and I noticed a bright light in the distance; but it appeared to not be moving. So; we called negative on the traffic. Monitoring TCAS; we began to watch for traffic climbing towards our route of flight. ATC frantically asked us if we had the traffic. At that time we had the traffic in sight and began a right turn and received a 'Climb; Climb' RA. I notified ATC of the RA and that we were turning right of course. The other aircraft stated on the radio that they had an RA as well and were descending. Per the TCAS the closest we got was about 800 FT vertically and something less than a mile horizontally. ATC then assigned us a heading again and said to continue the descent to 8;000 and to contact Approach.
...We then received a climb RA and advised the Controller of the RA. The Controller issued us a descent clearance. I initially followed the descent clearance and over the radio heard that Express Jet had received an RA and was also descending. I had disengaged the autopilot; began a climb to comply with the RA. It became apparent visually that we were very close and I turned the aircraft to the right away from the threat and our ATC assigned heading. We were within 800 FT vertically and less than 1 mile horizontally.The Controller attempted to climb the threat aircraft through our altitude with insufficient spacing. The Controller then attempted to place the Operational Error burden on the two flight crews by getting each crew to declare 'Visual Contact'.
An E140 flight crew on an inbound vector suffered a loss of separation with an outbound Embraer cleared to climb through their altitude.