EMB ERJ 170/175 ER/LR
Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Deviation - Speed All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Inflight Event / Encounter Unstabilized Approach; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence; Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue
Flight Crew Executed Go Around / Missed Approach
Weather
30 minutes out EWR we received a message from dispatch advising us of some weather that was moving into EWR some time at or after our time of arrival. We continued on and the First Officer (FO) went on to shoot the ILS 22L. All was normal up until around 500ft AGL. I realized the FO had the thrust levers at idle; the speed was increasing well beyond approach speed; and then we received the windshear caution. I called for the go-around; which we initiated and advised ATC. We were given a heading and altitude and complied while following the go-around procedures as close to SOP as possible. We advised dispatch of the go-around and decided to attempt another approach. Once leveled off and on speed; I took the controls from the First Officer (the NAV source stayed on his side) and proceeded to be revectored and shoot the ILS 22L. This time around; I overrode the auto throttles and hand flew the approach. Upon having the runway in sight we did receive the glideslope alert but I decided to continue to land since I was in positive control of the aircraft and another go-around would have meant us declaring a potential fuel emergency along with climbing back into the inclement weather and turbulence. I did get 3 red and one white on the PAPI's during this alert but corrected immediately. On final we did reach min fuel but did not declare because we were cleared to land and were fairly low on the approach. Had another go-around been initiated I would've immediately declared min fuel. Main reasons behind me writing this report are due to the go around on the approach that would've been unstable had we continued due to windshear; the glideslope alert we received once we had the runway in sight and I was in positive control of the aircraft; and the fact we landed with min fuel. As a recent upgrade; I am being extra cautious and believe I made the right decisions in taking the controls and shooting the approach myself. After landing I talked to dispatch and was told that the conditions in the surrounding airport would've been difficult to land due to the snow squall line reducing the visibility and ceilings. For future flights; I will pay closer attention to weather systems because this line of snow just appeared out of nowhere. We did not need an Alternate at the time we were dispatched and taking off we were limited with the amount of fuel we could carry. I have been continually following company procedure in order to conserve. For instance in ZZZ we were issued a wheels up for EWR. I held off engine start as close to the wheels up time as possible in order to ensure we had enough fuel in case something were to happen and it worked out.
We were flying to EWR and after we had switched over to approach control our dispatch sent us a message saying snow squalls were moving into NJ and the EWR area. We could still see the airport from our position so we figured we could continue. The Captain (Pilot Monitoring) monitored tower frequency on COMM 2 to see if others were getting in. We concluded that at the moment we could make it into EWR without issue and still have enough fuel left over for one go-around.On the downwind being vectored towards TEB we went through a short spell of snow. Everything was normal until 500 feet on the approach. We encountered a windshear caution at 500 feet with a gain of 25 knots associated with the snow squall moving in to the airport. ATC had said that a small Citation jet had reported +/-7 knots. The Captain called for a go-around and we executed it following ATC directions. We reported to them the go-around was for windshear and a gain of 25 knots. We decided that we had fuel for one more approach and EWR was a good choice as it was still good weather for us and we had seen the runway at about 700-900 feet range. The captain decided to take the second approach and I become the pilot monitoring. Everything was normal on the setup and vectors for the second approach. Commencing the approach we had reached our min fuel number. The Captain decided to click off the autopilot after configuring the aircraft for landing and hand fly it in to the airport. I called for 1000 feet configured and 500 feet stable. Right after that we encounter some strong gusts and the glideslope warning went off twice before we had an uneventful touchdown in EWR.I think the cause of this incident can be traced back to our flight planning when we were looking over our release. Dispatch had planned it for a wet runway in ZZZ. However we agreed that the runway was not wet anymore since it hadn't rained since our landing an hour prior and it was dry at that time too. Had we asked for more fuel at that time and informed dispatch that we could use dry runway conditions for takeoff we would not have worked ourselves into this corner. Additionally; had we heeded the message from our new release when we reached NJ on the arrival and thought about diverting and fueling with extra fuel before trying to get into EWR we wouldn't have been in a tight fuel situation after our first go around.In the future; I will try to be more assertive about asking to take additional fuel or change planning conditions to reflect what the conditions are at the time to help avoid a situation like this again. We could have also made the choice to divert after the first go around to another airport such as LGA or PHL for additional fuel before attempting to get back into EWR. The lessons learned from this flight will help me not to feel pressured to continue to the destination airport with deteriorating weather after the first go around and instead opt for the conservative option next time.
Embraer flight crew reported executing a go-around after experiencing windshear on initial approach during a snow squall at EWR.