NASA · Aviation Safety Reporting System
Air carrier flight crew reported obstacle alert while on approach to DCA.
What is ASRS?
The Aviation Safety Reporting System is NASA's voluntary, confidential, non- punitive incident-reporting system, established 1976. Pilots, controllers, dispatchers, and maintenance technicians file reports describing safety- relevant events. NASA de-identifies every report before adding it to the public database. Reports are not investigated by NASA, the FAA, or the NTSB — they represent the reporter's perspective.
Pilot narrative
Verbatim from the de-identified NASA record. First-person account by the
reporter. NASA strips identifying details (names, company, specific time);
anonymization placeholders are ZZZ,
X, Y.
Ceilings in DCA were near the MDA for the LDA Z 19 Approach. Visibility was roughly 2 SM. We knew there would be a possibility to go missed due to inability to see the runway. At the MDA, we still could not identify the runway. By the time we saw the runway, we were too close for a stable landing. We decided to go around, and ATC gave us a 250 vector and 3,000 altitude to set up for another try. On the second time around for the LDA Z approach, ATC notified us the prior three aircraft went missed as well. After the step-down fix, WEVPU, around 1,000 MSL, we still had not identified the runway and we received and obstacle alert. We decided to go around once more. ATC vectored us to the ILS 1 and landing was normal. Cloud ceilings were around 700 AGL, 40 kt winds aloft around 2,000 ft., calm on the runway. Procedures were followed. We briefed the strong possibility of a go around before the approach due to the weather. Both go arounds were performed as briefed.
NASA classification — Anomalies
- Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural
- Inflight Event / Encounter
NASA classification — Assessments
- Contributing Factors / Situations
- Airport · Human Factors · Procedure · Weather
- Primary Problem
- Weather
ASRS reports are voluntarily submitted, de-identified by NASA, and represent the reporter's perspective. The presence of reports on a topic cannot be used to infer prevalence in the National Airspace System. The authoritative source is the NASA ASRS Database Online at asrs.arc.nasa.gov ↗.