B737 flight crew reported an near midair collision with a light aircraft on arrival into ewr.

Attributes
ACN	1327875
Time
Date	201601
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	N90.TRACON
State Reference	NY
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Descent
Flight Plan	IFR
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	Cessna Aircraft Undifferentiated or Other Model
Flight Phase	Cruise
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 186 Flight Crew Total 19443 Flight Crew Type 17237
Person 2
Function	First Officer Pilot Flying
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 103 Flight Crew Total 11604 Flight Crew Type 8589
Events
Anomaly	Conflict NMAC Deviation - Procedural FAR

Narrative:

ATC called traffic with a 20 degree left turn to avoid; traffic was 400 feet below. In the turn we got a traffic advisory (TA) followed by a resolution advisory (RA) to descend. Traffic showed 100 feet below. Made visual contact; passed within 100 feet vertical and 50 yards lateral. We had descended to about 4;300 feet; ATC instructed us to climb back to 5;000 feet. We complied and reported the RA to the controller; which at this point was a different controller.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737 flight crew reported an NMAC with a light aircraft on arrival into EWR.

Narrative: ATC called traffic with a 20 degree left turn to avoid; traffic was 400 feet below. In the turn we got a Traffic Advisory (TA) followed by a Resolution Advisory (RA) to descend. Traffic showed 100 feet below. Made visual contact; passed within 100 feet vertical and 50 yards lateral. We had descended to about 4;300 feet; ATC instructed us to climb back to 5;000 feet. We complied and reported the RA to the controller; which at this point was a different controller.

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.