An air carrier captain on final to ewr runway 22L had a TCAS RA with a helicopter which ATC advised ...

Narrative:

On final approach to 22L in ewr in visual conditions using ILS 22L for guidance in addition to visual cues. Approximately 4 miles out on final approach ewr tower advised of a helicopter crossing below and ahead of us crossing right to left at or below 800 ft and the helicopter had us in sight. I was hand flying the aircraft. I never got visual contact with the traffic. We received a TCAS alert and subsequent RA approximately 1;400 ft MSL advising us to 'level off.' I complied; leveled at approximately 1;300 ft and noted the vertical separation on the TCAS showed 500 ft. The 'clear of conflict' message was just a few seconds later and I noted my level off had put me roughly 2 dots high on the glidepath. Immediate corrections to the vertical profile put us back on the glideslope in short order and the remainder of the landing was uneventful. Tower requested a call on the land line; which I did upon reaching the hotel. The ATC controller advised me the helicopter was in the approved transit corridor at or below 800 ft. If that is true; then the glideslope to 22L would have put us at roughly 1;000 ft to 1;100 ft MSL over the corridor and we would have had vertical separation of roughly 200 ft to 300 ft; which doesn't seem sufficient.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An air carrier Captain on final to EWR Runway 22L had a TCAS RA with a helicopter which ATC advised was in a legal VFR corridor below 800 FT; but the Captain contended when on glideslope for Runway 22L traffic separation would be 200 feet-300 FT.

Narrative: On final approach to 22L in EWR in visual conditions using ILS 22L for guidance in addition to visual cues. Approximately 4 miles out on final approach EWR Tower advised of a helicopter crossing below and ahead of us crossing right to left at or below 800 FT and the helicopter had us in sight. I was hand flying the aircraft. I never got visual contact with the traffic. We received a TCAS alert and subsequent RA approximately 1;400 FT MSL advising us to 'level off.' I complied; leveled at approximately 1;300 FT and noted the vertical separation on the TCAS showed 500 FT. The 'Clear of Conflict' message was just a few seconds later and I noted my level off had put me roughly 2 dots high on the glidepath. Immediate corrections to the vertical profile put us back on the glideslope in short order and the remainder of the landing was uneventful. Tower requested a call on the land line; which I did upon reaching the hotel. The ATC Controller advised me the helicopter was in the approved transit corridor at or below 800 FT. If that is true; then the glideslope to 22L would have put us at roughly 1;000 FT to 1;100 FT MSL over the corridor and we would have had vertical separation of roughly 200 FT to 300 FT; which doesn't seem sufficient.

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	1188664
Time
Date	201407
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	EWR.Airport
State Reference	NJ
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Medium Large Transport Low Wing 2 Turbojet Eng
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Final Approach
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	Helicopter
Flight Phase	Cruise
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Conflict Airborne Conflict Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

An air carrier captain on final to ewr runway 22L had a TCAS RA with a helicopter which ATC advised was in a legal VFR corridor below 800 ft; but the captain contended when on glideslope for runway 22L traffic separation would be 200 feet-300 ft.