2022-09 · NASA ASRS report 1936552
CRJ-700 flight crew reported an aircraft generated 'Terrain Warning' while on a night visual approach to an airport in mountainous terrain. The runway assignment was late; the Captain choose to stay high for the terrain that was visible and the Captain was familiar with the airport. The pilots executed a go around and returned to land.
On an approach into ZZZ we were expecting Runway X. When we were about 10 miles out we started getting vectors and Approach Controller notified us that they were switching to Runway XX. By the time we got the new weather and loaded and briefed the approach; we were on right downwind for Runway XX. The main reason why I decided to do a visual approach is that the circling minimums for ILS Runway X would've taken us down to 6300 ft. which is 1000 ft. about above field elevation. For CAT D; the circling radius for us was only 4 NM. The terrain was about 7000 ft. We stayed high; 7500 ft.; due to terrain on final and kept the downwind/base narrower than usual to keep clear of terrain. When turning a 3-4 mile base we got 'caution terrain.' We could still see the terrain and kept visual separation from it and turned final. Because we stayed high on the approach we were too high and therefore we performed a go-around. We decided to go to Runway XY after the go around and landed safely on Runway XY.We were aware of terrains around the airport and both read the company charts information. As a pilot flying; I felt it'd be safer to stay high on downwind and do a visual approach rather than descending and circling for Runway XX. I felt comfortable to shoot a visual approach because I was very familiar with the airport and we had the terrain in sight at all times.It would be really helpful to have published instrument approach procedures for mountainous airports in our fleet.
I was the First Officer (FO) and pilot monitoring on my first flight outside of IOE. We were ferrying a plane into ZZZ. The Captain had been there several times before; so the Captain offered to fly the leg. The ATIS was advertising Runway X so we built and briefed the ILS X IAP. However; when we checked in with approach; the controller stated that they were switching runways to XX and offered us the visual and began vectoring us towards the downwind. We rebuilt the visual approach and briefed XX. And while we had quickly got the new ATIS; built and briefed the new visual approach; including company charts; we inappropriately accepted a visual approach without the stipulation of fully following an IAP ground track being met; as stated in the company charts. However; the Captain flying kept us high due to terrain and kept the downwind and base legs narrower than usual to keep clear of terrain. As we turned base; we got a 'caution terrain' indication. We could still see terrain and maintained visual separation the entire time as we turned final. Because the Captain remained higher and flew a tighter pattern; we were too high on final and chose to execute a go-around. We got re-vectored to Runway XY and landed safely.I believe the causes of this event are multiple. The first being me being a very new and inexperienced FO during my first trip off IOE; flying at night; in an unfamiliar airport terminal area on a very short flight. Secondly; the last minute runway change caused us to be task saturated; leading us to accept a visual approach; when the company charts state that we should've followed the ground track of an IAP. There were no IAPs into the runway in use; which means we would've had to circle to the opposite runway. However; the Captain stated that he/she felt it was safer to remain at a higher altitude; above terrain; getting vectored in the pattern and conduct a visual approach than it would be descending down to circling minimums and circling to Runway XX as a visual approach; due to terrain as stated in the company charts. The Captain said he/she felt very comfortable shooting the visual approach higher and off of vectors because he/she was very familiar with the airport; the surrounding terrain; and the fact that we could see the terrain the whole time. And lastly; as a brand new FO; I may have fallen victim to being hesitant to question a crew member with more experience and authority than myself. The Captain was confident in the plan of action. However; looking back; I could've spoken up more in following the company chart stipulation of following an IAP ground track.If I could do this entire arrival over again; I would have taken a couple of moments to slow the sequence of events down. When we received the last minute runway change; we could've asked for radar vectors or enter a holding pattern to create more time for ourselves. We had enough fuel to do so and the weather was VMC. In doing so; we could've reviewed IAP plates and company charts again to determine our best course of action. Also; as a new FO; I should not be hesitant to speak up and contribute to the crew environment; even though I don't have as much experience as the Captain. Also; a suggestion would be to create an RNAV charted visual approach into Runway XX to avoid the need for circling to that runway.
More incidents for this aircraft family
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
Loading the flight search…
Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.
We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.
Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.
Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.