An aircraft approaching cak in changing weather conditions was 700 ft low on approach because of an ...

Attributes
ACN	1056449
Time
Date	201212
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	CAK.Airport
State Reference	OH
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Light Transport Low Wing 2 Turbojet Eng
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Altimeter
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Clearance Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT

Narrative:

While being vectored for the ILS 23 into cak; ATC gave us a descent to 3;100 ft. When leveling at 3;100 ft; pilot flying noticed the radar altimeter reading about 1;250 AGL. Ack field elevation is 1;225 MSL. Both pilots felt the aircraft was low. Pilot not flying asked ATC to verify the altitude and altimeter setting. Center responded that we had been cleared to 3;100 ft and the altimeter setting was 29.35. ATC also showed us low and ask us to climb back to 3;100 ft. We reset or altimeters from 30.35 to 29.35 then climbed to 3;100 ft. We were flying into a low pressure system that was part of a cold front. A setting of 30.35 should have seemed too high for this type of weather. Asking the controller of listening to the ATIS a second time could confirm that the wrong setting had been entered.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An aircraft approaching CAK in changing weather conditions was 700 FT low on approach because of an incorrect barometric altimeter setting which was detected first by a low radar altitude; then by ATC.

Narrative: While being vectored for the ILS 23 into CAK; ATC gave us a descent to 3;100 FT. When leveling at 3;100 FT; pilot flying noticed the Radar Altimeter reading about 1;250 AGL. ACK field elevation is 1;225 MSL. Both pilots felt the aircraft was low. Pilot not flying asked ATC to verify the altitude and altimeter setting. Center responded that we had been cleared to 3;100 FT and the altimeter setting was 29.35. ATC also showed us low and ask us to climb back to 3;100 FT. We reset or altimeters from 30.35 to 29.35 then climbed to 3;100 FT. We were flying into a low pressure system that was part of a cold front. A setting of 30.35 should have seemed too high for this type of weather. Asking the Controller of listening to the ATIS a second time could confirm that the wrong setting had been entered.

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.

An aircraft approaching cak in changing weather conditions was 700 ft low on approach because of an incorrect barometric altimeter setting which was detected first by a low radar altitude; then by ATC.