NASA · Aviation Safety Reporting System
Air carrier pilot reported descending too low on final approach. Flight crew corrected and landed uneventfully.
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.
At the end of the Quervo1 arrival approaching XLANT, we were told to go direct TRSMO and cleared the ILS 31L. Had to quickly load that into the FMC. We set 2200 for FAF altitude since we were cleared for the approach. We were also in icing conditions and had to slow down to 170 or less. Once inside TRSMO, I saw we were VNAV Path so we could set touchdown zone with Approach Mode on. After putting on the engine anti ice and putting out flaps to slow down, I look up and saw we were low and that our RA was reading just above 1200. I told the First Officer to pull up and we leveled off and caught the glide slope around 1200 at our final approach speed. Then continued for a normal landing.
NASA classification — Anomalies
- Deviation - Altitude
- Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural
- Inflight Event / Encounter
NASA classification — Assessments
- Contributing Factors / Situations
- Human Factors · Weather
- Primary Problem
- Human Factors
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 ↗.