A320 first officer reported a near mid-air collision on climb out from ewr when VFR traffic passed a...

Narrative:

Climbing out of ewr on runway 22R via the EWR2 departure we were cleared to 6;000 feet. Subsequently; we were advised of VFR traffic at 12 o'clock position [at] 6;500 feet. We had reported the aircraft in sight. As we were leveling off in the climb; we received a TCAS RA. I was still flying without the autopilot; however; neither of us remembered to de-select the flight directors. I noticed that the VFR traffic was only indicating 400 feet above us so I nudged the aircraft down another 80 feet to approximately 5;920 feet before the traffic passed directly overhead. A few moments later and after receiving the clear of conflict alert; we were cleared to climb to a higher altitude.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A320 First Officer reported a near mid-air collision on climb out from EWR when VFR traffic passed above them with less than 500 feet vertical clearance.

Narrative: Climbing out of EWR on Runway 22R via the EWR2 departure we were cleared to 6;000 feet. Subsequently; we were advised of VFR traffic at 12 o'clock position [at] 6;500 feet. We had reported the aircraft in sight. As we were leveling off in the climb; we received a TCAS RA. I was still flying without the autopilot; however; neither of us remembered to de-select the Flight Directors. I noticed that the VFR traffic was only indicating 400 feet above us so I nudged the aircraft down another 80 feet to approximately 5;920 feet before the traffic passed directly overhead. A few moments later and after receiving the clear of conflict alert; we were cleared to climb to a higher altitude.

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	1573006
Time
Date	201808
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	A320
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Climb
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Flying
Experience	Flight Crew Type 245
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Conflict NMAC

A320 first officer reported a near mid-air collision on climb out from ewr when VFR traffic passed above them with less than 500 feet vertical clearance.