A Q400 first officer reported they were flying a night visual approach and executed a go-around from...

Attributes
ACN	1397613
Time
Date	201610
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Q400
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Final Approach Initial Approach
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Altitude Undershoot Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT

Narrative:

During visual approach at night a missed approach was executed due to terrain warning. On a right base to final we lost sight of the runway and inadvertantly became too low and received a terrain warning at which time a missed approach was executed. After initiating the missed approach the pilot monitoring requested that the tower increase the runway lighting intensity at which time we both regained visual contact with the runway. The decision to not file a report initially was based on reference to the fom that does not require reporting a missed approach. The primary cause was a lack of situational awareness; specifically awareness of altitude during the approach. Contributing factors were a dark moonless night removing much of the normal visual information and less than full intensity of airport lighting making it difficult to see the airport from a distance.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A Q400 First Officer reported they were flying a night visual approach and executed a go-around from about 550 FT AGL. The flight crew lost sight of the airport on a right base; became low and received an EGPWS terrain warning.

Narrative: During visual approach at night a missed approach was executed due to terrain warning. On a right base to final we lost sight of the runway and inadvertantly became too low and received a terrain warning at which time a missed approach was executed. After initiating the missed approach the pilot monitoring requested that the tower increase the runway lighting intensity at which time we both regained visual contact with the runway. The decision to not file a report initially was based on reference to the FOM that does not require reporting a missed approach. The primary cause was a lack of situational awareness; specifically awareness of altitude during the approach. Contributing factors were a dark moonless night removing much of the normal visual information and less than full intensity of airport lighting making it difficult to see the airport from a distance.

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.

A Q400 first officer reported they were flying a night visual approach and executed a go-around from about 550 ft AGL. The flight crew lost sight of the airport on a right base; became low and received an egpws terrain warning.