Air carrier Captain reported receiving low altitude alert from Tower while on approach. Flight crew leveled aircraft and recaptured the glide path.
Synopsis
Air carrier Captain reported receiving low altitude alert from Tower while on approach. Flight crew leveled aircraft and recaptured the glide path.
Narrative
Operated Aircraft X ZZZ1 to ZZZ. During the flight we had experienced an MFD (Multi-function Flight Display) failure on my side. Ran the Qrh and the MFD came back after we cycled the circuit breaker. It was night and ZZZ was doing RNAV XX winds 330 16 gusting 25. I had done this approach last week while teaching a CA upgrade from the right seat during the day. I told my FO to watch my altitude since I was now doing the approach from the left seat at night so my sight picture was slightly off. Was set up well and everything looked good. Turned over the visual reference and did not shallow my descent enough; I got focused on my airspeed with the gusts; and the strong headwind needed a more shallow descent. Right as I noticed my altitude and verbalized; we got a low altitude alert from tower and I immediately corrected by leveling; until I was able to get the PAPIs in sight and get on glide path. Continued with no other issues and landed successfully. In our debrief we talked about how having the MFD back was important for SA (Situational Awareness); the strong headwind and momentary focus on airspeed; needed to scan altitude and altitude callouts from PM; and the different sight picture from night time. Cause: The cause was the strong headwind needing a shallower descent rate turning over the visual reference. It was gusting so our airspeed required a lot of attention. At night the approach is more difficult as it's harder to reference the visual ques. Suggestions: RNAV XX at night practice in sims
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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.