An air carrier crew on approach to fai runway 20 at night in cold weather; got an egpws terrain warn...

Narrative:

Descending into fai. Cleared for visual approach runway 20R. Night. We had an underlayed ILS approach; tuned ILS frequencies; plus the runway in the descent page for the vertical bearing. [We were] commencing the visual approximately twenty miles northwest of fai; gear down; speed 230 KTS. I noticed we were getting toward the optimum three degree approach path. Flaps were deployed on schedule. The air was very still and very cold - conducive to a high descent. In a snap of a finger we were low. I stated to the first officer we were low. At that moment we got a 'caution terrain' alert from the egpws and I noted at the same instant a portion of the terrain display; where were we at; went to a solid amber color. At the moment we got the aural alert the first officer aggressively applied power and climbed; stabilized; then made a normal landing. The cause was not monitoring the vertical descent in reference to terrain and the runway. Despite the fact I had a tuned ILS; FMC guidance; it still happened.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An Air Carrier crew on approach to FAI Runway 20 at night in cold weather; got an EGPWS Terrain Warning; aggressively added power; returned to the glideslope and completed a normal landing.

Narrative: Descending into FAI. Cleared for Visual Approach Runway 20R. Night. We had an underlayed ILS approach; tuned ILS frequencies; plus the runway in the descent page for the vertical bearing. [We were] commencing the visual approximately twenty miles northwest of FAI; gear down; speed 230 KTS. I noticed we were getting toward the optimum three degree approach path. Flaps were deployed on schedule. The air was very still and very cold - conducive to a high descent. In a snap of a finger we were low. I stated to the First Officer we were low. At that moment we got a 'Caution Terrain' alert from the EGPWS and I noted at the same instant a portion of the Terrain Display; where were we at; went to a solid amber color. At the moment we got the aural alert the First Officer aggressively applied power and climbed; stabilized; then made a normal landing. The cause was not monitoring the vertical descent in reference to terrain and the runway. Despite the fact I had a tuned ILS; FMC Guidance; it still happened.

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	993418
Time
Date	201202
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	FAI.Airport
State Reference	AK
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
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 Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT Inflight Event / Encounter Unstabilized Approach

An air carrier crew on approach to fai runway 20 at night in cold weather; got an egpws terrain warning; aggressively added power; returned to the glideslope and completed a normal landing.