Narrative:

Cleared for the visual into boise on a clear night. The arrival set us up on a right downwind for 28R and we were cleared to land. The captain was flying and clicked the autopilot off somewhere around 8000 feet on downwind. He was descending to about 5;000 feet and ATC asked if we could turn around a 3 mile final for spacing with another plane on a long final. We complied. When we started the base turn we were at maneuvering speed; with flaps 45 and gear down. It looked good. The inbound course for final was set in the FMS and the ILS was backing it up. I saw the runway and thought everything looked normal so I looked down at a chart to get the ground frequency or something. When I looked up a few seconds later we were still turning. I momentarily got disoriented but then I asked the captain if he still had the runway. It didn't appear that he did and he didn't answer so I said 'it's over there.' at this point we had made a 180 degree turn from the downwind and the runway was off our left. He was lining up on some road he was staring at out the window; and must have never even looked at the FMS and its pegged needle. He then turned toward the runway after I pointed to it. He said something about screwing it up and I said it's ok; we'll just go around. When the RA called 500 feet we still weren't even lined up on final. He didn't say anything at first but then said something about thinking we could still make it. I said no let's go around and he did. We climbed up to 4500 and entered a left downwind for 28L this time. I set the visual for 28L into the FMS and read through the checklist for after takeoff as well as descent just to make sure we were still set up. We were cleared to land number 1 for that runway and our downwind was a bit wide. As soon as we started a base turn that would put us on about a 3 or 4 mile final he clicked off the autopilot and started descending. He was basically staring out the side window looking for the runway again and let the nose drop and we started descending. I said something like I think we're a little bit low; maybe we want to climb back up a bit and around then the egpws said 'caution obstacle.' he stopped descending at that point; thankfully. I think we were at 4;000 feet. We turned final at that altitude and stayed on glidepath until touchdown. Poor airmanship [was the cause]; but I blame myself for not speaking up sooner. He's a new captain and was complacent with terrain. He didn't use the flight instruments to back up a visual. He didn't really divide attention inside and outside the plane on the second approach. He was fixating. I had been concerned with terrain and let my guard down as soon as we turned base and everything looked good. I shouldn't have looked down at my chart and I could've pointed out the runway sooner. This is the first time I've flown with someone who literally scared me and I wanted to just say my controls and fly it myself. Fos are in a kind of weird spot when captains screw up. I was assuming that he would fix his errors but the problem was that he wasn't even seeing them and I should've said something sooner. Also I had already pointed out several other errors during the flight and thought I was sounding critical or nagging.speak up sooner and don't be afraid to question captains. Also don't assume that they know what they're doing. I thought I would never be afraid to say something but I wasn't expecting student pilot level mistakes and wasn't sure how to handle it.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CRJ-700 First Officer reported the flying pilot appeared disoriented during a visual approach and descended to an unsafe altitude.

Narrative: Cleared for the visual into Boise on a clear night. The arrival set us up on a right downwind for 28R and we were cleared to land. The captain was flying and clicked the autopilot off somewhere around 8000 feet on downwind. He was descending to about 5;000 feet and ATC asked if we could turn around a 3 mile final for spacing with another plane on a long final. We complied. When we started the base turn we were at maneuvering speed; with flaps 45 and gear down. It looked good. The inbound course for final was set in the FMS and the ILS was backing it up. I saw the runway and thought everything looked normal so I looked down at a chart to get the ground frequency or something. When I looked up a few seconds later we were still turning. I momentarily got disoriented but then I asked the captain if he still had the runway. It didn't appear that he did and he didn't answer so I said 'it's over there.' At this point we had made a 180 degree turn from the downwind and the runway was off our left. He was lining up on some road he was staring at out the window; and must have never even looked at the FMS and its pegged needle. He then turned toward the runway after I pointed to it. He said something about screwing it up and I said it's ok; we'll just go around. When the RA called 500 feet we still weren't even lined up on final. He didn't say anything at first but then said something about thinking we could still make it. I said no let's go around and he did. We climbed up to 4500 and entered a left downwind for 28L this time. I set the visual for 28L into the FMS and read through the checklist for after takeoff as well as descent just to make sure we were still set up. We were cleared to land number 1 for that runway and our downwind was a bit wide. As soon as we started a base turn that would put us on about a 3 or 4 mile final he clicked off the autopilot and started descending. He was basically staring out the side window looking for the runway again and let the nose drop and we started descending. I said something like I think we're a little bit low; maybe we want to climb back up a bit and around then the EGPWS said 'caution obstacle.' He stopped descending at that point; thankfully. I think we were at 4;000 feet. We turned final at that altitude and stayed on glidepath until touchdown. Poor airmanship [was the cause]; but I blame myself for not speaking up sooner. He's a new captain and was complacent with terrain. He didn't use the flight instruments to back up a visual. He didn't really divide attention inside and outside the plane on the second approach. He was fixating. I had been concerned with terrain and let my guard down as soon as we turned base and everything looked good. I shouldn't have looked down at my chart and I could've pointed out the runway sooner. This is the first time I've flown with someone who literally scared me and I wanted to just say my controls and fly it myself. FOs are in a kind of weird spot when captains screw up. I was assuming that he would fix his errors but the problem was that he wasn't even seeing them and I should've said something sooner. Also I had already pointed out several other errors during the flight and thought I was sounding critical or nagging.Speak up sooner and don't be afraid to question captains. Also don't assume that they know what they're doing. I thought I would never be afraid to say something but I wasn't expecting student pilot level mistakes and wasn't sure how to handle it.

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.