Narrative:

Departing 22R at ewr we were handed off to ny departure; I checked in stating '[airline; flight number] heavy; leaving 1.6 for 5;000 ft'; at approximately 3;000 the controller queries '[airline]; what altitude are you climbing to?' I reply 5;000 and he states our clearance was to 2;500 and to maintain 4;000. There were no traffic conflicts. We complied; cleaned up; were handed off and once at cruise reviewed the chain of events. I checked the ewr 8 SID and the altitude was indeed 5;000; I reviewed the pre departure clearance that we received via ACARS and it took me a couple times reviewing the clearance before I caught the error. The last line of the first page had 'exception to the SID'; and then the first line of the second page read 'maintain 2;500'.could this have been avoided? Of course; but as with any deviation; there's usually a chain of events. I've been operating out of ewr for the past few pairings; never an altitude change; and a little expectation bias on my part. On this flight we had highlighted on the first page of the pre departure clearance 'crew alert ATC route chg eliot J80 kippi then as filed'. I reviewed our flight plan on the release and noted that was already part of the route. I then hit next page; not noticing the last line; the next page I saw ewr 8 with the rest of the clearance. I must mention that the ACARS reads like a scroll or next page feature on a pdf document. It cuts sentences. I believe if 'exception to the SID; maintain 2;500' was one line; or a complete sentence; not broken by a page scroll; or even highlighted; like the nebulous crew alert; this deviation would not have happened. I also; upon initial contact with departure always state; 'leaving 1.6 (abbreviated) for 5 thousand (not abbreviated). The controller was a little busy and did not catch the altitude climbing to. Bottom line; I will definitely review the pre departure clearance line by line; occasionally looking away to give my eyes a new focus and verbally challenge the other crewmember that he has indeed read the clearance off the ACARS.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air Carrier Captain reports missing 2;500 FT initial altitude restriction on the PDC departing EWR.

Narrative: Departing 22R at EWR we were handed off to NY Departure; I checked in stating '[Airline; flight number] heavy; leaving 1.6 for 5;000 FT'; at approximately 3;000 the controller queries '[airline]; what altitude are you climbing to?' I reply 5;000 and he states our clearance was to 2;500 and to maintain 4;000. There were no traffic conflicts. We complied; cleaned up; were handed off and once at cruise reviewed the chain of events. I checked the EWR 8 SID and the altitude was indeed 5;000; I reviewed the PDC that we received via ACARS and it took me a couple times reviewing the clearance before I caught the error. The last line of the first page had 'exception to the SID'; and then the first line of the second page read 'maintain 2;500'.Could this have been avoided? Of course; but as with any deviation; there's usually a chain of events. I've been operating out of EWR for the past few pairings; never an altitude change; and a little expectation bias on my part. On this flight we had highlighted on the first page of the PDC 'CREW ALERT ATC RTE CHG ELIOT J80 KIPPI then as filed'. I reviewed our flight plan on the release and noted that was already part of the route. I then hit next page; not noticing the last line; the next page I saw EWR 8 with the rest of the clearance. I must mention that the ACARS reads like a scroll or next page feature on a PDF document. It cuts sentences. I believe if 'exception to the SID; maintain 2;500' was one line; or a complete sentence; not broken by a page scroll; or even highlighted; like the nebulous CREW ALERT; this deviation would not have happened. I also; upon initial contact with departure always state; 'leaving 1.6 (abbreviated) for 5 thousand (not abbreviated). The controller was a little busy and did not catch the altitude climbing to. Bottom line; I will definitely review the PDC line by line; occasionally looking away to give my eyes a new focus and verbally challenge the other crewmember that he has indeed read the clearance off the ACARS.

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.