Flight crew of a large transport jet reported going below glide path on approach into dca resulting ...

Attributes
ACN	1459495
Time
Date	201706
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	DCA.Airport
State Reference	DC
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Large Transport
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach Final Approach
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Total 11583
Person 2
Function	First Officer Pilot Flying
Events
Anomaly	Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT

Narrative:

I was pilot monitoring. We were cleared for river visual approach to runway 19 at dca. First officer had visual on the river and began the approach. Aircraft was on the path. Told to contact tower and I went heads down to switch over and get landing clearance. When I looked back up we were below the path and descending. Just as I directed a correction we got a GPWS terrain warning. First officer disconnected the autopilot and started correcting back to the descent path. I also directed a turn to the left to continue following the river. We configured the aircraft and he was slightly below the path at 1000 ft and correcting. At 500 ft he was stable and following the VASI guidance. Landing was uneventful.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Flight crew of a large transport jet reported going below glide path on approach into DCA resulting in a GPWS warning. After correcting the flight landed normally.

Narrative: I was pilot monitoring. We were cleared for River Visual Approach to runway 19 at DCA. FO had visual on the river and began the approach. Aircraft was on the path. Told to contact tower and I went heads down to switch over and get landing clearance. When I looked back up we were below the path and descending. Just as I directed a correction we got a GPWS terrain warning. FO disconnected the autopilot and started correcting back to the descent path. I also directed a turn to the left to continue following the river. We configured the aircraft and he was slightly below the path at 1000 ft and correcting. At 500 ft he was stable and following the VASI guidance. Landing was uneventful.

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.

Flight crew of a large transport jet reported going below glide path on approach into dca resulting in a GPWS warning. After correcting the flight landed normally.