Air carrier flight crew reported a GPWS warning during a visual approach into dal at night.

Attributes
ACN	1516359
Time
Date	201802
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	DAL.Airport
State Reference	TX
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Commercial Fixed Wing
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Final Approach
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 328
Person 2
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 335
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT Inflight Event / Encounter Unstabilized Approach

Narrative:

While on a heading for the final course; traffic was observed; we became concerned about conflict and an early turn was initiated. The captain turned off the autopilot for the visual approach. The altitude became low and we observed a GPWS 'caution obstacle' over downtown. A level off was made and the airspeed reached vref. An airspeed call was made and flight path and airspeed where both corrected. A go around was not ordered or initiated and landing was normal. At the gate we determined that a go around was required due to night operation.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier flight crew reported a GPWS warning during a visual approach into DAL at night.

Narrative: While on a heading for the final course; traffic was observed; we became concerned about conflict and an early turn was initiated. The Captain turned off the autopilot for the Visual Approach. The altitude became low and we observed a GPWS 'Caution Obstacle' over downtown. A level off was made and the airspeed reached VREF. An airspeed call was made and flight path and airspeed where both corrected. A go around was not ordered or initiated and landing was normal. At the gate we determined that a go around was required due to night operation.

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.