Narrative:

I am submitting a report for the RNAV (gnss) runway 08 approach to puerto plata; dominican republic. I; the first officer; also the pilot flying; elected to fly the GPS approach to 08 to puerto plata; pop; (mdpp). This approach brings one in across hilly terrain with higher mountains off to the southeast and one 2;000 ft hill to the northeast. I selected the approach; inputted the 0.3 rnp; checked weather; confirmed it was not an rnp approach requiring an anp nor manual setting of the VOR's; and that there was no airport page saying we were not legal to fly it. Weather was 2;200 ft scattered at the field; but mostly overcast to broken cumulus along the approach path until about three miles short of the field. I modified the approach by putting in hard altitudes of 4;000/180 at PP351 and 3;000/170 at kelso (FAF) because I tend to prefer the airplane to fly slower and descend earlier so there is no question if the airplane is going to pop into VNAV speed or say 'drag required.' approaching the IAF (emivo); santo domingo control only cleared us to 8;000 ft; though the holding pattern there was charted for 4;000 ft. The captain crosschecked his MSA vectoring chart and requested 6;000 ft at the IAF (emivo); which we were subsequently cleared to. Both of us were concerned about starting the approach at twice the charted minimum altitude (4;000 ft) and getting into high descent rates to stay on VNAV path. Leaving the IAF; as best as I can remember; I slowed and configured with flaps and I speed intervened so as to get 'on approach' mode prior to the turn inbound from PP351 towards the FAF. I also looked over at the captain's terrain display and saw only spotted green with red and yellow farther out where we knew a ridgeline to be. I then called gear and flaps 20 to ensure we would be able to get to the FAF of kelso by 3;000 ft without difficulty. Just after PP351; inbound turn complete; I again glanced at the terrain display which showed only some spotty green. With the FAF the active waypoint; the captain put in the MDA. We were now level at 3;000 ft; gear down flaps 20 inbound to the FAF. This seemed appropriate as the FAF was at 3;000 ft and 9.2 miles from the runway. A couple of miles prior to the FAF we entered into the weather. As; or right after; the captain put in the MDA in the MCP; we received a 'terrain; terrain; pull-up pull-up' warning. I commenced the escape maneuver; shoved the throttles forward; clicked off the auto throttles and autopilot and started to rotate towards 20 degrees nose up. When I felt the captain's hands behind mine on the throttles; I removed my hands and visually checked the speedbrake. I don't remember how many times we received the warning. It may have been once; maybe twice but was definitely gone approaching 4;000 ft as we broke out onto the ragged top layer of clouds. Speed was around 160 KTS. Flaps were not over sped and there were no engine exceedances. We then; in order to stay VMC; maneuvered around some clouds until we were well clear of any weather and terrain. The field was in sight shortly thereafter and I set up for a visual approach and landing. As a side note; as we cleared the runway; we noticed another carrier (previously cleared for the same approach) doing several 'south' turns on final to descend. They had been cleared the same approach 15 miles behind us. I personally talked to the A320 captain of the other carrier at his gate. I told him what happened to us and he said; 'oh yeah; you'll get those warnings on that approach. I always come in high on that approach.' my feeling is this approach may have some bad data in the database causing a re-occurrence of this issue.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B757 Crew reported an EGPWS 'Terrain; Pull UP' alert near KELSO Intersection on the MDPP RNAV Runway 08 approach at 3;000 FT. The false warning had been reported on other aircraft types including the B737 and A320.

Narrative: I am submitting a report for the RNAV (GNSS) Runway 08 approach to Puerto Plata; Dominican Republic. I; the First Officer; also the pilot flying; elected to fly the GPS approach to 08 to Puerto Plata; POP; (MDPP). This approach brings one in across hilly terrain with higher mountains off to the southeast and one 2;000 FT hill to the northeast. I selected the approach; inputted the 0.3 RNP; checked weather; confirmed it was not an RNP approach requiring an ANP nor manual setting of the VOR's; and that there was no airport page saying we were not legal to fly it. Weather was 2;200 FT scattered at the field; but mostly overcast to broken cumulus along the approach path until about three miles short of the field. I modified the approach by putting in hard altitudes of 4;000/180 at PP351 and 3;000/170 at KELSO (FAF) because I tend to prefer the airplane to fly slower and descend earlier so there is no question if the airplane is going to pop into VNAV speed or say 'Drag Required.' Approaching the IAF (EMIVO); Santo Domingo Control only cleared us to 8;000 FT; though the holding pattern there was charted for 4;000 FT. The Captain crosschecked his MSA vectoring chart and requested 6;000 FT at the IAF (EMIVO); which we were subsequently cleared to. Both of us were concerned about starting the approach at twice the charted minimum altitude (4;000 FT) and getting into high descent rates to stay on VNAV path. Leaving the IAF; as best as I can remember; I slowed and configured with flaps and I speed intervened so as to get 'on approach' mode prior to the turn inbound from PP351 towards the FAF. I also looked over at the Captain's terrain display and saw only spotted green with red and yellow farther out where we knew a ridgeline to be. I then called gear and flaps 20 to ensure we would be able to get to the FAF of KELSO by 3;000 FT without difficulty. Just after PP351; inbound turn complete; I again glanced at the terrain display which showed only some spotty green. With the FAF the active waypoint; the Captain put in the MDA. We were now level at 3;000 FT; gear down flaps 20 inbound to the FAF. This seemed appropriate as the FAF was at 3;000 FT and 9.2 miles from the runway. A couple of miles prior to the FAF we entered into the weather. As; or right after; the Captain put in the MDA in the MCP; we received a 'Terrain; Terrain; Pull-Up Pull-Up' warning. I commenced the escape maneuver; shoved the throttles forward; clicked off the auto throttles and autopilot and started to rotate towards 20 degrees nose up. When I felt the Captain's hands behind mine on the throttles; I removed my hands and visually checked the speedbrake. I don't remember how many times we received the warning. It may have been once; maybe twice but was definitely gone approaching 4;000 FT as we broke out onto the ragged top layer of clouds. Speed was around 160 KTS. Flaps were not over sped and there were no engine exceedances. We then; in order to stay VMC; maneuvered around some clouds until we were well clear of any weather and terrain. The field was in sight shortly thereafter and I set up for a visual approach and landing. As a side note; as we cleared the runway; we noticed another carrier (previously cleared for the same approach) doing several 'S' turns on final to descend. They had been cleared the same approach 15 miles behind us. I personally talked to the A320 Captain of the other carrier at his gate. I told him what happened to us and he said; 'oh yeah; you'll get those warnings on that approach. I always come in high on that approach.' My feeling is this approach may have some bad data in the database causing a re-occurrence of this issue.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.