Narrative:

We were cleared to take-off runway xxr via the RNAV departure. At roughly 500 ft. AGL the first officer called traffic ahead. The traffic was a helicopter hovering roughly 1;000 ft. AGL directly in the runway xxr flight path for the SID. I observed the traffic visually and confirmed the traffic on my nd with an 'amber' TCAS advisory image at +600 ft. TCAS did not issue a RA; which it should have because the helicopter was directly in the lateral flight path of my aircraft. At this time I adjusted the vertical climb of the aircraft to pass directly beneath the helicopter. The first officer advised tower that there was traffic; at which time the controller issued the helicopter traffic to start a turn south. We passed beneath the helicopter roughly 500 ft. Then I resumed the vertical profile of the SID. No lateral course deviations were taken at any time during the event. The rest of the departure ensued without incident. I asked the first officer to inform ATC that the helicopter was really close to the flight path at this time; and that we would be filing an as soon as possible report. Suggestions: this incident could have been prevented if the VFR helicopter traffic had not been cleared to maneuver in the departing traffic flight path. Or; if we had not been issued a take-off clearance until the VFR traffic had cleared the flight path and had been referenced by ATC tower. The controller seemed to be task saturated since he was the only controller working in the tower that time of night. Perhaps this condition contributed to the lack of traffic coordination we observed.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A320 flight crew reported an NMAC on departure with a VFR aircraft.

Narrative: We were cleared to take-off Runway XXR via the RNAV Departure. At roughly 500 ft. AGL the First Officer called traffic ahead. The traffic was a helicopter hovering roughly 1;000 ft. AGL directly in the Runway XXR flight path for the SID. I observed the traffic visually and confirmed the traffic on my ND with an 'AMBER' TCAS advisory image at +600 ft. TCAS did not issue a RA; which it should have because the helicopter was directly in the lateral flight path of my aircraft. At this time I adjusted the vertical climb of the aircraft to pass directly beneath the helicopter. The First Officer advised Tower that there was traffic; at which time the controller issued the helicopter traffic to start a turn South. We passed beneath the helicopter roughly 500 ft. then I resumed the vertical profile of the SID. No lateral course deviations were taken at any time during the event. The rest of the departure ensued without incident. I asked the First Officer to inform ATC that the helicopter was really close to the flight path at this time; and that we would be filing an ASAP report. Suggestions: This incident could have been prevented if the VFR helicopter traffic had not been cleared to maneuver in the departing traffic flight path. Or; if we had not been issued a take-off clearance until the VFR traffic had cleared the flight path and had been referenced by ATC tower. The controller seemed to be task saturated since he was the only controller working in the tower that time of night. Perhaps this condition contributed to the lack of traffic coordination we observed.

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.