Captain reported ewr ATC's confusion about a previously assigned heading contributed to confusion in...

Attributes
ACN	1695508
Time
Date	201910
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	EWR.Airport
State Reference	NJ
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B757 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Final Approach Initial Approach
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Multiengine
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Speed All Types Inflight Event / Encounter Unstabilized Approach

Narrative:

ILS/visual approach to 4R ewr. On a heading of 140. The controller gave us a clearance to turn left to 120; also to descend to 3000; slow to 180 and continue descent to 2000. First officer (first officer) descended to 3000; while reducing speed; extended speed brakes. Controller started to issue new heading clearance; however after stating turn left to 070; he said; are your guys doing this on your own? Presumably he noticed we were already turning and forgot that he had given us the previous turn. We didn't know how to respond and there was a pause; controller came back and stated; 'oh I gotcha now; turn to 070;' and he cleared us to intercept and for the approach. The pause distracted the first officer enough to forget he had used the speed brakes. The aircraft got slow; first officer added power and pitched down to recover speed; I noticed he still had speed brakes extended; I queried him and he retracted them causing the speed to climb above 200kts; flaps 5. During recovery we briefed flaps 25; added the wind correction of 15kts for a target speed of 143 and continued; thinking we had recovered we continued to landing; however the printer printed out that we were between 170 and 160 KTS below 500.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Captain reported EWR ATC's confusion about a previously assigned heading contributed to confusion in the cockpit consequently resulting in procedural; speed errors; and an unstable approach.

Narrative: ILS/Visual approach to 4R EWR. On a heading of 140. The controller gave us a clearance to turn left to 120; also to descend to 3000; slow to 180 and continue descent to 2000. First Officer (FO) descended to 3000; while reducing speed; extended speed brakes. Controller started to issue new heading clearance; however after stating turn left to 070; he said; are your guys doing this on your own? Presumably he noticed we were already turning and forgot that he had given us the previous turn. We didn't know how to respond and there was a pause; controller came back and stated; 'Oh I gotcha now; turn to 070;' and he cleared us to intercept and for the approach. The pause distracted the FO enough to forget he had used the speed brakes. The aircraft got slow; FO added power and pitched down to recover speed; I noticed he still had speed brakes extended; I queried him and he retracted them causing the speed to climb above 200kts; flaps 5. During recovery we briefed flaps 25; added the wind correction of 15kts for a target speed of 143 and continued; thinking we had recovered we continued to landing; however the printer printed out that we were between 170 and 160 KTS below 500.

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.

Captain reported ewr ATC's confusion about a previously assigned heading contributed to confusion in the cockpit consequently resulting in procedural; speed errors; and an unstable approach.