2025-05 · NASA ASRS report 2240378
Air carrier flight crew reported receiving a low altitude alert from ATC during descent below glide path. Flight crew made corrected flight path and continued approach.
We were on the Tipp Toe Visual Rwy 28L and I was PF with the autopilot engaged. As we were passing CHERA. I stared getting behind the aircraft. I had too shallow of a descent rate which was causing us to be high when intercepting the final approach course. Realizing my mistake; I selected a descent of approximately 3000 fpm to try the bring the aircraft to a more acceptable altitude. At approximately 1400 feet; I noticed that I blew past our advisory glide path and started to command a level off. At this same time; ATC gave us an unsafe altitude alert. I then disconnected the autopilot and made the corrections to get the aircraft stable; finish getting in landing configuration; and continue the approach.Factors that contributed to this event include a high workload; automation mismanagement; and failure to initiate a go-around. Another contributing factor was rushing as it was the last flight of the evening and all the speeds ATC assigned us were minimum speeds (ex: 210 or better) leading to the approach. My mismanagement of aircraft energy was a significant factor in this event.I regret not maintaining better situational awareness and not maintaining a more consistent descent rate while on the Tipp Toe Visual that would have had us intercept final approach course at a more reasonable altitude. This could in part have been mitigated with additional briefing including asking my PM to be more critical of my altitude management in this busy workload situation. I also regret not making the decision to initiate a go-around when it became clear that we would have to make an aggressive descent to get back on a flight path to continue our approach. I also regret continuing to use the automation past the point where it was helping me. We could have had a much more stable approach if I had made the decision to hand fly the plane before getting so far behind the aircraft.
When we were cleared for the tip toe visual over SIDBY; we were given 210 for the speed and still had 5000 bugged. At the same time; ATC gave us a traffic call for our pairing traffic. Once we passed CHERA we were given a slow down to 180 while still being at 5000 ft. At this point we were much to high and fast so we dropped flaps and gear to help us slow first before descending. A high descent rate of 3000 fpm was then selected to recapture our glide path. Just past the bridge/DUYET; as we still had a high descent rate and ATC gave us a low altitude warning. At the same time; AP was disconnected as it was more manageable to hand fly and stabilize the descent rate. We were then able to then finish the configuration and stabilize the aircraft for the landing.Task saturation with speed and altitude changes; and traffic advisories from ATC. We were left high and fast turning onto final which required a more aggressive descent and slowdown when given the clearance. As the PM also not assertive enough in realizing and calling out altitude or speed corrections to make a more stabilized approach.To avoid this; as the PM. Ensure the correct altitudes are set and when a high speed is requested so close to joining final; ensure that we are closer to the bottom altitudes to help with energy management. Making suggestions earlier to correct our high-energy state would've required less aggressive corrections and have led to a more stable approach. With how behind we were realizing our energy state; a request for re-sequence would've been the better choice.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
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