Date: 201811
Local time of day: 1801-2400
Location: EWR.Airport, NJ
Flight conditions: IMC
Weather elements / visibility: Turbulence
Light: Night
Aircraft: EMB ERJ 145 ER/LR
Operator: Air Carrier
Operating under: Part 121
Flight plan: IFR
Mission: Passenger
Flight phase: Descent
ATC / advisory: TRACON N90
Reporter organization: Air Carrier
Reporter function: First Officer; Pilot Flying
Reporter qualification: Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Multiengine
Human factors: Workload
Anomaly: Deviation - Speed All Types; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Detector: Person Flight Crew
When detected: In-flight
Result: General None Reported / Taken
Contributing factors: Weather
Primary problem: Weather

Narrative: On descent into EWR we were on the Williamsport arrival when we were given holding instructions at SLT. We made one turn in the hold and they planned to reroute us through the Shaff 7 arrival. Upon the reroute we were told the Williamsport reopened. On the Williamsport again an aircraft in front of us reported severe turbulence. ATC informed us and told us to slow down; then soon after the arrival was closed and we were rerouted to the Shaff again. On the Shaff passing through 7;000 feet we were experiencing moderate turbulence. Three aircraft in front of us reported moderate to severe below 7;000 feet. We were told to descend to 5;000 feet; and once passing through 5;800 feet we experienced severe turbulence for a time period of a few minutes; maybe more. The flight attendant before entering the New York area was told to be seated due to possible moderate turbulence.Severe turbulence wasn't reported until we were in it. We were barely able to maintain control of the aircraft in the descent. The shaking was so extreme we could not visually read our instruments. We kept the aircraft at 200 knots as is our VA below 10;000 feet the turbulence made it impossible to maintain a particular airspeed but we did our best. At flight idle in a descent we were gaining 20 - 30 knots at any given time. The rate of descent was set to 1000 FPM but the turbulence had it fluctuate by 1000 FPM at a time. Once below 4;000 feet the turbulence subsided and we landed on without incident. We did not feel or believe the aircraft took damage; but since the area of severe turbulence was reported by multiple aircraft and we agreed we thought it best to report it ourselves and thus write it up in the Maintenance log. No injuries occurred from either the crew or passengers. We believe the severe turbulence we encountered was unavoidable at the time of the initial report. We were painting little to nothing on our radar.In my opinion the severe turbulence encounter was unavoidable if we were to land at EWR. In my opinion this flight should have been delayed or canceled due to the reports around EWR. These reports weren't issued until we were about to enter the severe turbulence so I can't see a way to avoid this event. The flight crew took swift and [decisive] action to maintain control of the aircraft and to maintain safety.This report is not to admit fault like other reports but to report the severe turbulence encounter. The severity of the turbulence was unforeseen and could not be avoided. In preparation for this flight we made sure we had plenty of fuel to have time to deal with any possible situation. This fuel proved to have been needed.




Synopsis: EMB-145 First Officer reported encountering severe turbulence on arrival into EWR.