The flight crew of an embraer erj-175 reported that they descended too rapidly when they received a ...

Attributes
ACN	1427592
Time
Date	201702
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	EMB ERJ 170/175 ER/LR
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Final Approach
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Aero Charts
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Type 190
Person 2
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT

Narrative:

While performing the visual approach; I descended sooner than was prescribed on the approach chart. I descended to maintain 900 feet at 4 DME from the VOR instead of at 3 DME. Because of this I received both a GPWS 'terrain' caution and a notification by ATC that we were too low. After our flight; the captain and I debriefed the event and found that the 900 feet label is positioned rather close to the 4 DME label although it has an arrow pointing to the 3 DME label. Unable to look at the approach chart for too long because I was flying the aircraft; I quickly associated 900 feet with 4 DME instead of 3 DME and planned to descend to 900 feet earlier than I should have.events like this can be prevented in the future by taking note of descent rate and angle while on the approach and calling out and verifying altitudes at specific fixes or distances while on the approach. The approach plate itself can also be altered by repositioning some of the altitude/distance labels to make things a little clearer and prevent possible confusion.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: The flight crew of an Embraer ERJ-175 reported that they descended too rapidly when they received a EPGWS obstacle alert and a call from Tower to say they were too low.

Narrative: While performing the visual approach; I descended sooner than was prescribed on the approach chart. I descended to maintain 900 feet at 4 DME from the VOR instead of at 3 DME. Because of this I received both a GPWS 'TERRAIN' caution and a notification by ATC that we were too low. After our flight; the Captain and I debriefed the event and found that the 900 feet label is positioned rather close to the 4 DME label although it has an arrow pointing to the 3 DME label. Unable to look at the approach chart for too long because I was flying the aircraft; I quickly associated 900 feet with 4 DME instead of 3 DME and planned to descend to 900 feet earlier than I should have.Events like this can be prevented in the future by taking note of descent rate and angle while on the approach and calling out and verifying altitudes at specific fixes or distances while on the approach. The approach plate itself can also be altered by repositioning some of the altitude/distance labels to make things a little clearer and prevent possible confusion.

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.

The flight crew of an embraer erj-175 reported that they descended too rapidly when they received a epgws obstacle alert and a call from tower to say they were too low.