Narrative:

Approaching phl for landing there were numerous storms approaching the airport from the west. Upon analyzing the radar; we decided to postpone the approach until the storms passed the field. After 20 minutes we decided to proceed to shoot the ILS 27R. Weather at the field was reported marginal VFR with thunderstorms in the vicinity. Right at 1;000 feet and stable; the tower advised of a windshear alert. At 900 feet we received a 'windshear ahead' warning immediately followed by a 'go-around windshear ahead' warning. We immediately executed a go-around using normal go-around procedures. At 1;200 feet; the aircraft began to lose speed; buffet and sink. At that point we executed the windshear escape procedure as trained. Lowest altitude reached was 620 feet before we flew out of the shear and aircraft performance returned to normal. We advised the tower and were vectored around to ILS 9R for a normal approach and landing. The event occurred because it was an act of god. We did everything possible to mitigate the potential effects of the weather on the approach. We delayed the approach to allow the weather to pass. We held extra speed on the approach as a precaution for shear. We discussed a plan of action and contingencies for the approach. We followed procedure when confronted with the windshear event. The only thing we could have done is possibly to wait a little longer for the weather to move away from the airport. However; the decision to shoot the approach was made because our alternate was about to get hit with thunderstorms and would not be an option to divert to. Our fuel was becoming an issue; and we needed to make sure we had enough to divert elsewhere if our approach in phl did not end with a landing. Also; I wanted to mention that the windshear escape procedures that we train each year in the simulator worked very well to allow us to fly the aircraft to safety during a windshear encounter low to the ground.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: After delaying their approach while thunderstorms passed over the airport the flight crew of a B757-200 still encountered windshear requiring a go-around during their initial approach. A subsequent approach from the opposite direction was successful.

Narrative: Approaching PHL for landing there were numerous storms approaching the airport from the west. Upon analyzing the radar; we decided to postpone the approach until the storms passed the field. After 20 minutes we decided to proceed to shoot the ILS 27R. Weather at the field was reported marginal VFR with thunderstorms in the vicinity. Right at 1;000 feet and stable; the Tower advised of a windshear alert. At 900 feet we received a 'windshear ahead' warning immediately followed by a 'go-around windshear ahead' warning. We immediately executed a go-around using normal go-around procedures. At 1;200 feet; the aircraft began to lose speed; buffet and sink. At that point we executed the windshear escape procedure as trained. Lowest altitude reached was 620 feet before we flew out of the shear and aircraft performance returned to normal. We advised the Tower and were vectored around to ILS 9R for a normal approach and landing. The event occurred because it was an act of God. We did everything possible to mitigate the potential effects of the weather on the approach. We delayed the approach to allow the weather to pass. We held extra speed on the approach as a precaution for shear. We discussed a plan of action and contingencies for the approach. We followed procedure when confronted with the windshear event. The only thing we could have done is possibly to wait a little longer for the weather to move away from the airport. However; the decision to shoot the approach was made because our alternate was about to get hit with thunderstorms and would not be an option to divert to. Our fuel was becoming an issue; and we needed to make sure we had enough to divert elsewhere if our approach in PHL did not end with a landing. Also; I wanted to mention that the windshear escape procedures that we train each year in the simulator worked very well to allow us to fly the aircraft to safety during a windshear encounter low to the ground.

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.