Regional Jet 200 ER/LR (CRJ200)
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Distraction; Situational Awareness; Confusion
Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Unstabilized Approach
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Executed Go Around / Missed Approach; Flight Crew Regained Aircraft Control
Aircraft; Human Factors; Procedure; Weather
As we were turned for a long final for Runway XYL; outside of ZZZZZ Intersection; we were asked repeatedly to report the field in sight. At the same time; the FMS was loaded and sequenced; but the CDI had not auto tuned; so the Autopilot was not catching the localizer. My First Officer was looking outside trying to find the field and I was splitting my attention between looking for the field; trying to not overfly the localizer and trying to figure out where the automation had failed. By the time I knew we were going to overfly the localizer I had turned off the autopilot and manually turn the aircraft towards the airport; while still trying to find the runway. Between the haze; the multiple straight lengths of pavement and XYR being closer and more prominent than XYL I was having a hard time picking out XYL and accidentally lined up on XYR.We were also told to keep our airspeed up to 180 knots. Because we were still trying to configure for landing; we were late making the switch over to tower. By the time that I realized that we were lined up for the wrong runway; we were below 1000 feet. I then called for and executed a go around procedure.
Captain was flying. I was the pilot monitoring. Started when we were getting vectored for a visual approach for RWY XYR. Captain was confused on heading/altitude assignments I do not know why. As getting established we were not receiving the Localizer properly for the runway (it was tuned and identified though) but not helping us line up with the runway. Soon I noticed the Captain getting nervous; we were not configured completely to land and very off centerline with the runway. Being the First officer I should have prompted corrective action sooner; but the captain called a go-around. Afterwards I noticed he was confused with another runway and flying toward that one the whole time. We conducted a pilot induced go-around.The second I felt uncomfortable I should have said something. Even though he is a new Captain I almost felt shocked by what was happening and almost froze.It is a situation you don't expect to come across. But being fairly new in the company and on approach to landing I did not just want to point out the Captain's mistakes. It was a very big mistake so I instantly second-guessed myself on what was going on. After doing the go-around there was great CRM in bringing the aircraft in and felt way more comfortable. It was the first go-around I have ever done. In the future if there is any doubt on the operation of the flight or if I feel uncomfortable I will let the Captain know immediately. It is not worth keeping quiet and rather be wrong and corrected then right.
CRJ200 flight crew reported that during descent the autopilot was unable to capture the localizer.