Narrative:

I (first officer) was flying pilot.  We had just turned base leg in clear VMC.  We were left at a substantially high altitude when assigned a heading to turn base leg.  I started a steeper than normal descent using the flight spoilers and a 250 knot descent speed and put the FAF crossing altitude (2;400 ft) into the altitude preselect.  Tower controller asked us if we had the runway in sight.  The captain replied that we had the runway in sight.  We were cleared for the visual approach.  While still on the base leg we descended through the MSA of 2;900 ft on the way to 2;400 ft.  Tower called us and instructed us to check our altitude and altimeter setting.  I could hear an audible alert in the background of the tower transmission.  I felt they were getting uncomfortable with our altitude and initiated a climb back up to the MSA of 2;900 ft; retracting the spoilers and adding more thrust.  While concentrating on the airspeed/altitude parameters; I noticed we were about to pass through the extended runway centerline.  While performing the turn to final; we could see visually that we were slightly right (west) of course.  I corrected back to the centerline by the time we passed over the final approach fix and flew a normal stabilized approach to landing.  No tower communications were received by us after the initial altitude concern.  I do not believe there were any aircraft utilizing the adjacent runway during our approach.  I do not believe there were any separation concerns. I think this type of error could be mitigated by airlines choosing to pay their pilots a wage that allows them to not have the fate of their careers in the back of their mind at all times while trying to operate a safe flight operation; or bringing back the holiday ham certificate program.  Cheers.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CRJ First Officer reports descending below the MSA during a visual approach which is challenged by ATC and corrected by the reporter.

Narrative: I (First Officer) was flying pilot.  We had just turned base leg in clear VMC.  We were left at a substantially high altitude when assigned a heading to turn base leg.  I started a steeper than normal descent using the flight spoilers and a 250 knot descent speed and put the FAF crossing altitude (2;400 FT) into the altitude preselect.  Tower Controller asked us if we had the runway in sight.  The Captain replied that we had the runway in sight.  We were cleared for the visual approach.  While still on the base leg we descended through the MSA of 2;900 FT on the way to 2;400 FT.  Tower called us and instructed us to check our altitude and altimeter setting.  I could hear an audible alert in the background of the Tower transmission.  I felt they were getting uncomfortable with our altitude and initiated a climb back up to the MSA of 2;900 FT; retracting the spoilers and adding more thrust.  While concentrating on the airspeed/altitude parameters; I noticed we were about to pass through the extended runway centerline.  While performing the turn to final; we could see visually that we were slightly right (west) of course.  I corrected back to the centerline by the time we passed over the final approach fix and flew a normal stabilized approach to landing.  No tower communications were received by us after the initial altitude concern.  I do not believe there were any aircraft utilizing the adjacent runway during our approach.  I do not believe there were any separation concerns. I think this type of error could be mitigated by airlines choosing to pay their pilots a wage that allows them to not have the fate of their careers in the back of their mind at all times while trying to operate a safe flight operation; or bringing back the Holiday Ham certificate program.  Cheers.

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.