B717 (Formerly MD-95)
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Training / Qualification; Communication Breakdown; Time Pressure; Workload
Deviation - Altitude Overshoot; Deviation - Speed All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR
Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
Human Factors; Airport
I was pilot monitoring on a flight to LGA. We were cleared for the Expressway Visual to 4. On short final we still had not been cleared to land so I called Tower to request a landing clearance. A pause was followed by instructions to go around climb runway heading to 3;000 feet. It might have been 2;000 feet but was changed shortly to 3;000 feet. Go around starts fine enough we are climbing out runway heading; getting cleaned up; and the autopilot is off. In the task saturated environment the pilot flying was having difficulty achieving clearances. i.e. we didn't get to 3;000 feet so the autothrottles continue to give us power; in a shallow climb which left us flying over Manhattan at 280 knots and 2;700 feet. We were later cleared to 4;000 feet but continued a slow high speed climb to this altitude. I asked if the pilot flying would like the autopilot and he said yes. I engaged to autopilot and as you can guess the plane starts to pitch; roll; and climb to meet the hard tuned heading; altitude; and speed we have set. The correct heading; altitude; and speed are hard tuned. The pilot flying asked if I was touching anything to which I said no. He then clicked off the autopilot and started hand flying again. The pilot flying was avoiding the command bars and complaining that the autothrottles weren't working and something was wrong. I think the automation was trying to do what we had hard tuned but the hand flying was overriding its programming. We eventually got around and landed without incident. When we reached the gate the pilot flying explained that the autothrottles were going crazy and never came out of climb power. I suggested that it was because we didn't reach our altitude. He disagreed. He also mentioned extreme gusts; turbulence; and atmospheric conditions over New York that made flying difficult. He also noted that New York has terrible controllers. I suggested that we should self report for the various violations of airspeed; altitude; etc. He didn't think we needed to. After thinking about it the rest of the day I decided to submit this report.When I replay the situation in my head it is clear that I should have taken control of the airplane. The event happened quickly and at the time I remember thinking that the ship was not in danger and it would be more dangerous to try and take control and possibly get into an argument about aircraft control in the busiest airspace on earth. I should also mention that we had a Dispatcher from another airline on the jump seat. I do remember it crossing my mind that taking control from the pilot flying in front of someone else can be problematic. I should have been more assertive in declaring the problem.
An air carrier was given a go around on short final following a LGA Runway 4 Expressway Visual and the pilot flying had difficulty controlling the aircraft during flight over Manhattan.