A flight crew on a visual approach to san runway 27 received an ATC low altitude alert while descend...

Attributes
ACN	1305208
Time
Date	201510
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	SAN.Airport
State Reference	CA
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Large Transport Low Wing 2 Turbojet Eng
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Final Approach Landing
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Captain
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 212 Flight Crew Total 4047 Flight Crew Type 2803
Person 2
Function	Pilot Not Flying First Officer
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 55 Flight Crew Type 113
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT Inflight Event / Encounter Unstabilized Approach

Narrative:

We were vectored for the approach to 27 rnav approach. We had just flown the very same approach earlier with no issues and this may have led to a false sense of security. Had a visual on the airport on down wind and base leg crossed final slightly high but had runway in sight so did not expect any issues. Caught up to rnav descent guidance (brick) and then noticed that I might lose sight of the airport soon due to a thin cloud layer. I pushed the nose over to keep sight of the airport . At this point I felt uncomfortable and started to level out and prepare for a go around. ATC called with a low altitude alert and asked to confirm we had a visual on the airport. I could see the outlines of the runway and the VASI so we called the airport and descended. At this point the approach was relatively uneventful. We landed on speed and on the first third of the runway. I should have gone around and not tried to keep the airport in sight.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A flight crew on a visual approach to SAN Runway 27 received an ATC LOW ALTITUDE alert while descending through a thin cloud layer prior to clearly seeing the VASI.

Narrative: We were vectored for the approach to 27 rnav approach. We had just flown the very same approach earlier with no issues and this may have led to a false sense of security. Had a visual on the airport on down wind and base leg crossed final slightly high but had runway in sight so did not expect any issues. Caught up to rnav descent guidance (brick) and then noticed that I might lose sight of the airport soon due to a thin cloud layer. I pushed the nose over to keep sight of the airport . At this point I felt uncomfortable and started to level out and prepare for a go around. ATC called with a low altitude alert and asked to confirm we had a visual on the airport. I could see the outlines of the runway and the VASI so we called the airport and descended. At this point the approach was relatively uneventful. We landed on speed and on the first third of the runway. I should have gone around and not tried to keep the airport in sight.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.

A flight crew on a visual approach to san runway 27 received an ATC low altitude alert while descending through a thin cloud layer prior to clearly seeing the VASI.