An air carrier flight crew; cleared for a night visual approach to runway 12 at cyeg descended too l...

Narrative:

The controller had vectored us directly to cyeg and; when he asked if we had the field and we answered yes; cleared us for the visual. I turned to a downwind heading and extended it to about 9 miles from the field because we were not going to have much of a base leg since the controller did not give us any kind of offset to setup for the approach. During the downwind to left base for runway 12; I asked the first officer for an altitude to descend to. He said 3;400 [ft] MSL. I looked briefly at the chart while trying to see the runway and saw 3;400 ft [FAF inbound crossing altitude] as well as 3;700 ft [procedure turn altitude] on the chart. I said to set 3;500 ft. Prior to course intercept; I saw 1;100-1;200 ft on the radio altimeter while still some 8 NM from the field. I initiated a climb and the rest of flight was uneventful. I should not have accepted the visual. Because I was busy trying to maintain my situational awareness as to the field; I mistakenly didn't question the low altitude given to me by the first officer.I was assigned this trip sunday evening and; although I did try lying down before the 'near midnight central' show time; I did not get any sleep prior to this trip and; thus; had had only two hours sleep in the previous 24 hours.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An air carrier flight crew; cleared for a night visual approach to Runway 12 at CYEG descended too low while on downwind and executed a climb to a higher altitude to position themselves vertically for their base and final approach legs. The reporter cited fatigue as a major contributing factor.

Narrative: The Controller had vectored us directly to CYEG and; when he asked if we had the field and we answered yes; cleared us for the visual. I turned to a downwind heading and extended it to about 9 miles from the field because we were not going to have much of a base leg since the Controller did not give us any kind of offset to setup for the approach. During the downwind to left base for Runway 12; I asked the First Officer for an altitude to descend to. He said 3;400 [FT] MSL. I looked briefly at the chart while trying to see the runway and saw 3;400 FT [FAF inbound crossing altitude] as well as 3;700 FT [procedure turn altitude] on the chart. I said to set 3;500 FT. Prior to course intercept; I saw 1;100-1;200 FT on the radio altimeter while still some 8 NM from the field. I initiated a climb and the rest of flight was uneventful. I should not have accepted the visual. Because I was busy trying to maintain my situational awareness as to the field; I mistakenly didn't question the low altitude given to me by the First Officer.I was assigned this trip Sunday evening and; although I did try lying down before the 'near midnight Central' show time; I did not get any sleep prior to this trip and; thus; had had only two hours sleep in the previous 24 hours.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1082790
Time
Date	201304
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	CYEG.Airport
State Reference	AB
Environment
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Commercial Fixed Wing
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT

An air carrier flight crew; cleared for a night visual approach to runway 12 at cyeg descended too low while on downwind and executed a climb to a higher altitude to position themselves vertically for their base and final approach legs. The reporter cited fatigue as a major contributing factor.