Erj-175 flight crew reported recovering from an unusual attitude at 8;000 ft that resulted from a se...

Attributes
ACN	1483343
Time
Date	201709
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	IMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	EMB ERJ 170/175 ER/LR
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Descent
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Type 1300
Person 2
Function	First Officer Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Speed All Types Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence Inflight Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control

Narrative:

While at 10000 ft; 250KTS we were switched over to approach. We were told to expect ILS 9 and descend to 3000 ft. We had been expecting [a different runway]. I was heads down trying to quickly reload the arrival and approach and get numbers for runway 9. I felt the airplane pitch nose down and looked up to see us greater than 10 degrees nose down; airspeed increasing; and descending rapidly in a right turn. I reached up pulled the speed brakes to full; took the controls and executed the nose low unusual attitude recovery. The highest airspeed I recall was 290 KTS somewhere around 8000 ft. I leveled the wings turning north of the arrival. We requested a heading. We were in and out of the clouds at night. We were aware of a small thunderstorm to the south of the arrival. I think we flew into a small thunderstorm that we were not showing on radar; and did not see coming. As a result I think we were in a downdraft that overwhelmed the autopilot. Approach and or center could have told us what runway to expect further out. This would have allowed me; as pilot monitoring; to be heads up at the time of the incident.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ERJ-175 flight crew reported recovering from an unusual attitude at 8;000 FT that resulted from a severe downdraft associated with convective activity.

Narrative: While at 10000 FT; 250KTS we were switched over to Approach. We were told to expect ILS 9 and descend to 3000 FT. We had been expecting [a different runway]. I was heads down trying to quickly reload the arrival and approach and get numbers for runway 9. I felt the airplane pitch nose down and looked up to see us greater than 10 degrees nose down; airspeed increasing; and descending rapidly in a right turn. I reached up pulled the speed brakes to full; took the controls and executed the nose low unusual attitude recovery. The highest airspeed I recall was 290 KTS somewhere around 8000 FT. I leveled the wings turning north of the arrival. We requested a heading. We were in and out of the clouds at night. We were aware of a small thunderstorm to the south of the arrival. I think we flew into a small thunderstorm that we were not showing on radar; and did not see coming. As a result I think we were in a downdraft that overwhelmed the autopilot. Approach and or Center could have told us what runway to expect further out. This would have allowed me; as pilot monitoring; to be heads up at the time of the incident.

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.

Erj-175 flight crew reported recovering from an unusual attitude at 8;000 ft that resulted from a severe downdraft associated with convective activity.