Narrative:

Heavy snow was falling in the area of my intended destination and runways were closed by NOTAM. Myself as captain and a company first officer were scheduled to fly and taf showed weather to improve. We called the airport around and they confirmed about 8' of snow had fallen and they were in the process of clearing it. The weather improved and we were released by company dispatch. One runway was opened though one remained closed by NOTAM. We called airport and verified airport condition of one inch or less plowed snow and a runway was open. The initial part of flight was uneventful and we requested an RNAV approach utilizing lpv minimums.center verified one runway was closed but one runway was open. We began the approach and checked again with unicom regarding runway condition (plowed and open.) pilot monitoring made at least 3 CTAF calls that I can recall. Upon reaching minimums the first approximately 1000 feet of the runway was clearly visible and descent for normal landing was initiated. Shortly afterwards a dark vehicle that looked like a snow plow was observed about 500 feet down the runway halfway on the east side moving toward the runway threshold. Both myself and the first officer observed the vehicle. We executed a missed approach and queried unicom about the status of the runway. Shortly afterwards they said the runway was now clear. A subsequent approach resulted in a missed approach due to deteriorating conditions. Visibility at this time was reported below our applicable minimums and we went to our alternate. At the time it only seemed like an inconvenience; but we were incredibly fortunate that the vehicle was not further down the runway where it was not yet visible and where our ability to avoid a collision minimized.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Airliner 99 pilot on short final reported they observed a vehicle on the runway and executed a missed approach.

Narrative: Heavy snow was falling in the area of my intended destination and runways were closed by NOTAM. Myself as Captain and a company First Officer were scheduled to fly and TAF showed weather to improve. We called the airport around and they confirmed about 8' of snow had fallen and they were in the process of clearing it. The weather improved and we were released by company dispatch. One runway was opened though one remained closed by NOTAM. We called airport and verified airport condition of one inch or less plowed snow and a runway was open. The initial part of flight was uneventful and we requested an RNAV Approach utilizing LPV minimums.Center verified one runway was closed but one runway was open. We began the approach and checked again with UNICOM regarding runway condition (plowed and open.) Pilot Monitoring made at least 3 CTAF calls that I can recall. Upon reaching minimums the first approximately 1000 feet of the runway was clearly visible and descent for normal landing was initiated. Shortly afterwards a dark vehicle that looked like a snow plow was observed about 500 feet down the runway halfway on the east side moving toward the runway threshold. Both myself and the First Officer observed the vehicle. We executed a missed approach and queried UNICOM about the status of the runway. Shortly afterwards they said the runway was now clear. A subsequent approach resulted in a missed approach due to deteriorating conditions. Visibility at this time was reported below our applicable minimums and we went to our alternate. At the time it only seemed like an inconvenience; but we were incredibly fortunate that the vehicle was not further down the runway where it was not yet visible and where our ability to avoid a collision minimized.

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.