Narrative:

We were approaching jumpr intersection from the north and had been cleared to 15;000'. Boston center informed us that we would get cleared higher when past an airbus that was east of us at 16;000' and converging. We both saw the airbus on what appeared to be a parallel ground track. We reported the airbus in sight and boston cleared us to climb to 17;000' and maintain visual separation. As we continued to climb; I realized that the airbus was stationary in the side window and getting closer. About the time I suggested to my first officer that we level off below his altitude; we got a TCAS RA aural warning directing us to monitor vertical speed and visual display showing us to maintain level flight or descend. We stopped climbing and leveled off at 15;200'. We reported to boston that we had leveled off; that we had been responding to an RA; and that our intention was to maintain our altitude until we had passed behind the other aircraft. We passed a couple of hundred yards behind and about 800 feet below the airbus soon afterwards. Once clear on the left side of the airbus; with a diverging vector; we continued our climb to 17;000'. The boston center controller asked us how close the RA had been and I answered '800 ft below.' he said 'no problem' and shortly cleared us for an early turn on course. In light of the difficulty of estimating range visually to another aircraft; we should have monitored the map display to assess lateral separation and lateral closure. That would have indicated to us that we should have shallowed out our climb to let the other aircraft pass across our nose and to increase lateral separation before climbing through within 1000 feet of its altitude.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B737 crew reported climbing with ATC clearance to 17;000'. Crossing traffic at 16;000' was sighted but the reporters were unable to determine traffic separation altitude and leveled at 15;200' in response to a TCAS RA.

Narrative: We were approaching JUMPR intersection from the north and had been cleared to 15;000'. Boston Center informed us that we would get cleared higher when past an Airbus that was east of us at 16;000' and converging. We both saw the Airbus on what appeared to be a parallel ground track. We reported the Airbus in sight and Boston cleared us to climb to 17;000' and maintain visual separation. As we continued to climb; I realized that the Airbus was stationary in the side window and getting closer. About the time I suggested to my First Officer that we level off below his altitude; we got a TCAS RA aural warning directing us to monitor vertical speed and visual display showing us to maintain level flight or descend. We stopped climbing and leveled off at 15;200'. We reported to Boston that we had leveled off; that we had been responding to an RA; and that our intention was to maintain our altitude until we had passed behind the other aircraft. We passed a couple of hundred yards behind and about 800 feet below the Airbus soon afterwards. Once clear on the left side of the Airbus; with a diverging vector; we continued our climb to 17;000'. The Boston Center Controller asked us how close the RA had been and I answered '800 ft below.' He said 'no problem' and shortly cleared us for an early turn on course. In light of the difficulty of estimating range visually to another aircraft; we should have monitored the map display to assess lateral separation and lateral closure. That would have indicated to us that we should have shallowed out our climb to let the other aircraft pass across our nose and to increase lateral separation before climbing through within 1000 feet of its altitude.

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.