Air carrier flight crew reported that while descending on a night visual approach to abq runway 26 t...

Narrative:

We were descending into abq airport for a visual approach to runway 26. We were at 10;000 ft and being given radar vectors. The controller advised us that the airport was at our two o'clock position. I looked and saw what appeared to be the airport and told the first officer to call it in-sight. The controller cleared us for the visual approach and I initiated a gradual descent and turned to a heading that would put us just inside a five mile extended final from runway 26. I had my GPWS on and saw that there was terrain to the north of our position but planned to stay well away from it but as we descended through 9000 ft; we received a GPWS terrain caution message. I immediately initiated terrain clearance procedures by adding full power pitching up and climbing until the terrain caution went away. We called ATC and informed them that we had climbed out of our approach and asked for radar vectors to runway 3. We reconfigured for an approach to runway 3 and followed ATC instructions for the radar vectors and then a visual approach and landing to runway 3. We left [our departure airport] over two hours late because of weather delays and it was [very late at night] by the time we were arriving into abq. When I was planning which runway we were going to use in abq; I saw that runway 26 would be the quickest approach to land because we were on a westerly heading and it would have given us the quickest taxi time on the ground. In the future; I will never attempt a visual approach into runway 26 into abq. I think abq should be classified as a special airport because of the terrain in the area. I think this will give pilots a cue to reconsider visual approaches to runway 26.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier flight crew reported that while descending on a night visual approach to ABQ Runway 26 they received a GPWS caution message. The escape maneuver was completed followed by an uneventful landing.

Narrative: We were descending into ABQ Airport for a visual approach to runway 26. We were at 10;000 ft and being given radar vectors. The controller advised us that the airport was at our two o'clock position. I looked and saw what appeared to be the airport and told the first officer to call it in-sight. The controller cleared us for the visual approach and I initiated a gradual descent and turned to a heading that would put us just inside a five mile extended final from runway 26. I had my GPWS on and saw that there was terrain to the north of our position but planned to stay well away from it but as we descended through 9000 ft; we received a GPWS Terrain Caution Message. I immediately initiated Terrain Clearance Procedures by adding full power pitching up and climbing until the Terrain Caution went away. We called ATC and informed them that we had climbed out of our approach and asked for radar vectors to runway 3. We reconfigured for an approach to runway 3 and followed ATC instructions for the radar vectors and then a visual approach and landing to runway 3. We left [our departure airport] over two hours late because of weather delays and it was [very late at night] by the time we were arriving into ABQ. When I was planning which runway we were going to use in ABQ; I saw that runway 26 would be the quickest approach to land because we were on a Westerly Heading and it would have given us the quickest Taxi time on the ground. In the future; I will never attempt a visual approach into runway 26 into ABQ. I think ABQ should be classified as a Special Airport because of the Terrain in the area. I think this will give pilots a cue to reconsider visual approaches to runway 26.

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.

Attributes
ACN	1358992
Time
Date	201605
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	ABQ.Airport
State Reference	NM
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Medium Large Transport Low Wing 2 Turbojet Eng
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Route In Use	Vectors Visual Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Person 2
Function	Pilot Not Flying First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT

Air carrier flight crew reported that while descending on a night visual approach to abq runway 26 they received a GPWS caution message. The escape maneuver was completed followed by an uneventful landing.