Narrative:

We departed already delayed. The weather in dca was reporting 1000ft or better with the lda-Z 19 as the approach. While on the approach; with potomac approach; they reported the weather was right at mins for the approach. We continued the approach; and found that lda did not have glideslope; so we were managing altitude changes to meet the various step-downs. The dda was 720ft on the approach for 19; and arriving at that altitude we had ground contact but not runway contact. We executed a missed; informed tower; and [were] given a heading and altitude assignment; which we complied.the ca asked the tower if there was any talk of switching up the runways so an ILS can be conducted; and they said not at this time. Noting winds were 190 at 9kts. We attempted a second approach. This time we were aware the lda did not have glideslope so I as the pm was in pink needles to get vertical guidance. I also pulled up the VNAV data page; and verbalized how the PF was doing on the glide path; giving suggestions to correct for high or low. We had discussed that this would be the last attempt; and that bwi would be a better alternate if we don't get in. Again we were approaching minimums; and also heard other aircraft as well as the flight in front of us that went missed; and they diverted. We got to mins and again went missed and tower gave us a heading and altitude.we again asked if they will be switching up the runway to land north; for an ILS. ATC said he had just talked to management or something; and they were not doing that. We told them we would like to change our alternate to bwi and got vectors in that direction. In the mean time we coordinated with the dispatcher to have our alternate changed to bwi; and they made the changes and coordinated with bwi operations. We landed there with no incident; got our fuel and release and went to dca shortly after; as the weather had improved and flights were getting in.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Flight crew executed two LDA approaches into DCA resulting in missed approaches. Flight diverted to nearby alternate.

Narrative: We departed already delayed. The weather in DCA was reporting 1000ft or better with the LDA-Z 19 as the approach. While on the approach; with Potomac Approach; they reported the weather was right at mins for the approach. We continued the approach; and found that LDA did not have glideslope; so we were managing altitude changes to meet the various step-downs. The DDA was 720ft on the approach for 19; and arriving at that altitude we had ground contact but not runway contact. We executed a missed; informed tower; and [were] given a heading and altitude assignment; which we complied.The CA asked the tower if there was any talk of switching up the runways so an ILS can be conducted; and they said not at this time. Noting winds were 190 at 9kts. We attempted a second approach. This time we were aware the LDA did not have glideslope so I as the PM was in pink needles to get vertical guidance. I also pulled up the VNAV data page; and verbalized how the PF was doing on the glide path; giving suggestions to correct for high or low. We had discussed that this would be the last attempt; and that BWI would be a better alternate if we don't get in. Again we were approaching minimums; and also heard other aircraft as well as the flight in front of us that went missed; and they diverted. We got to mins and again went missed and tower gave us a heading and altitude.We again asked if they will be switching up the runway to land north; for an ILS. ATC said he had just talked to management or something; and they were not doing that. We told them we would like to change our alternate to BWI and got vectors in that direction. In the mean time we coordinated with the dispatcher to have our alternate changed to BWI; and they made the changes and coordinated with BWI operations. We landed there with no incident; got our fuel and release and went to DCA shortly after; as the weather had improved and flights were getting in.

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.