Md-80 flight crew reported climbing in response to a GPWS 'terrain' warning on a night visual approa...

Narrative:

Approaching elp from the east; we were level at 6;500 when ATC asked us if we had both el paso and biggs in sight. We were night VMC with great visibility and called both fields in sight. ATC then cleared us for a visual approach. Both the first officer and I had the runway 22 ILS selected in our navigation displays and the ILS chart on our ipads. The egpws displayed green 47 over 44 in the range selected; so I set the altitude alert for 5;900 that the chart depicted for crossing aguas at 3.4 miles outside the marker valtr. At 5;900 we received a terrain warning. It was VMC; but night so I began a climb until the warning silenced (within a few hundred feet). We then decided to capture the glide path from our new altitude above 5;900 feet with the egpws silent.in the future I think I'll refuse visual approaches into elp at night even in VMC conditions. I felt 'the trap' at elp would be making sure both el paso and biggs were in sight. Also using the ILS would be additional assurance. The egpws apparently saw something between 6;500 (our altitude when the visual approach was assigned) and 5;900 feet (the next depicted altitude on our approach chart).

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: MD-80 flight crew reported climbing in response to a GPWS 'Terrain' warning on a night visual approach to ELP.

Narrative: Approaching ELP from the east; we were level at 6;500 when ATC asked us if we had both El Paso and Biggs in sight. We were night VMC with great visibility and called both fields in sight. ATC then cleared us for a visual approach. Both the First Officer and I had the Runway 22 ILS selected in our navigation displays and the ILS chart on our iPads. The EGPWS displayed green 47 over 44 in the range selected; so I set the altitude alert for 5;900 that the chart depicted for crossing AGUAS at 3.4 miles outside the marker VALTR. At 5;900 we received a terrain warning. It was VMC; but night so I began a climb until the warning silenced (within a few hundred feet). We then decided to capture the glide path from our new altitude above 5;900 feet with the EGPWS silent.In the future I think I'll refuse visual approaches into ELP at night even in VMC conditions. I felt 'the trap' at ELP would be making sure both El Paso and Biggs were in sight. Also using the ILS would be additional assurance. The EGPWS apparently saw something between 6;500 (our altitude when the visual approach was assigned) and 5;900 feet (the next depicted altitude on our approach chart).

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	1409877
Time
Date	201612
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ELP.Airport
State Reference	TX
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	MD-80 Series (DC-9-80) Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Person 2
Function	First Officer Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT

Md-80 flight crew reported climbing in response to a GPWS 'terrain' warning on a night visual approach to elp.