A319 first officer flying the bridge visual to runway 29 at ewr is instructed to fly 'east' as the a...

Narrative:

We were on the bridge visual to runway 29 at ewr; fully configured; descending through 800-900 feet MSL; turning toward the runway only about three miles from touchdown. We had been cleared for landing many miles before. At that point tower told us to turn east toward the statue of liberty (reversing direction); and told us to be aware of multiple VFR targets; as we were at low altitude. They apparently had a spacing issue with traffic landing on 4R; so sent us on a perilous low altitude uncontrolled excursion toward manhattan. We leveled off and reduced our flap setting while doing as directed. After several miles they cleared us to turn back toward the runway and continue the approach. Newark apparently doesn't have proper contingency plans for close spacing; as this was a dangerous thing to do. We could have collided with VFR traffic or a tower; or we could have been seen as a threat to manhattan breaking off the approach and turning toward the city. We could have also gotten slow leveling and making a hard turn while fully configured.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A319 First Officer flying the Bridge Visual to Runway 29 at EWR is instructed to fly 'east' as the aircraft is turning toward CHUMR. A spacing problem had apparently developed with traffic landing on Runway 22.

Narrative: We were on the bridge visual to RWY 29 at EWR; fully configured; descending through 800-900 feet MSL; turning toward the runway only about three miles from touchdown. We had been cleared for landing many miles before. At that point Tower told us to turn east toward the statue of liberty (reversing direction); and told us to be aware of multiple VFR targets; as we were at low altitude. They apparently had a spacing issue with traffic landing on 4R; so sent us on a perilous low altitude uncontrolled excursion toward Manhattan. We leveled off and reduced our flap setting while doing as directed. After several miles they cleared us to turn back toward the runway and continue the approach. Newark apparently doesn't have proper contingency plans for close spacing; as this was a dangerous thing to do. We could have collided with VFR traffic or a tower; or we could have been seen as a threat to Manhattan breaking off the approach and turning toward the city. We could have also gotten slow leveling and making a hard turn while fully configured.

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.

Attributes
ACN	1165779
Time
Date	201404
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	SFO.Airport
State Reference	CA
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	A319
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Final Approach
Route In Use	Visual Approach STAR Bridge
Person 1
Function	Pilot Not Flying First Officer
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 150 Flight Crew Total 10000 Flight Crew Type 5000
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Inflight Event / Encounter Other / Unknown

A319 first officer flying the bridge visual to runway 29 at ewr is instructed to fly 'east' as the aircraft is turning toward chumr. A spacing problem had apparently developed with traffic landing on runway 22.