Air carrier flight crew reported difficulties during a night visual approach to pns due to the runwa...

Narrative:

Expecting a visual to 17 we were 20 miles out and direct to pns. A scattered layer at 2000 MSL was obstructing our view so I asked approach control for direct to brent. Approach control gave us direct brent and descend to 1700 MSL. On a right base direct brent the first officer said he spotted a beacon; but I still couldn't see it thinking the layer was the reason. I had listened to the ASOS and noted pilot controlled lighting was on CTAF but forgot to click the lights on using COMM2. We were slowed to 160 kts with flaps 3 and gear down as we approached 3 miles from brent. Approach told us field at 2 o'clock; I replied still searching. Approach gave us a 140 heading to join. This had us going inside brent at 1700 MSL. The first officer stated; 'oh; the runway lights are off'. I scrambled to click the lights on with COMM2 but had 119.1 tuned in. The first officer disengaged the ap pitched the nose down to remain on glide path while I was doing this. We were not cleared for an approach however. We lost 150 to 200 feet of altitude. Approach control told us; 'low altitude alert' and gave us a left turn heading 090. We corrected back to 1700 MSL. We were vectored back around for the ILS but by now had the lights on and the runway in sight.both the first officer and I remarked during the descent that we could feel the lateness of the night and were fighting to remain alert. We think this contributed to the event. ATC turning us inside final while holding 1700 ft MSL was not a help. The first officer's reaction was to start descending to capture the glide path because he knew otherwise we would be too high. But because we were neither cleared for a visual or the ILS; we should have remained at 1700. I had my focus on the box correcting a frequency and clicking on lights when I should have accomplished that a while ago so I could maintain situational awareness at a critical time. Taking the initiative to activate runway lights early on instead of waiting to see the airport beacon would have given us the visual in time. Also asking for a vector to join outside of the FAF would buy more time to see the airport and control the lighting.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier flight crew reported difficulties during a night visual approach to PNS due to the runway lights not being activated via mic clicks. A low altitude alert was issued by ATC and the flight was vectored back around for another attempt.

Narrative: Expecting a visual to 17 we were 20 miles out and direct to PNS. A scattered layer at 2000 MSL was obstructing our view so I asked approach control for direct to BRENT. Approach control gave us direct BRENT and descend to 1700 MSL. On a right base direct BRENT the FO said he spotted a beacon; but I still couldn't see it thinking the layer was the reason. I had listened to the ASOS and noted pilot controlled lighting was on CTAF but forgot to click the lights on using COMM2. We were slowed to 160 kts with Flaps 3 and gear down as we approached 3 miles from BRENT. Approach told us field at 2 o'clock; I replied still searching. Approach gave us a 140 heading to join. This had us going inside BRENT at 1700 MSL. The FO stated; 'Oh; the runway lights are off'. I scrambled to click the lights on with COMM2 but had 119.1 tuned in. The FO disengaged the AP pitched the nose down to remain on glide path while I was doing this. We were not cleared for an approach however. We lost 150 to 200 feet of altitude. Approach control told us; 'Low altitude alert' and gave us a left turn heading 090. We corrected back to 1700 MSL. We were vectored back around for the ILS but by now had the lights on and the runway in sight.Both the FO and I remarked during the descent that we could feel the lateness of the night and were fighting to remain alert. We think this contributed to the event. ATC turning us inside final while holding 1700 ft MSL was not a help. The FO's reaction was to start descending to capture the glide path because he knew otherwise we would be too high. But because we were neither cleared for a visual or the ILS; we should have remained at 1700. I had my focus on the box correcting a frequency and clicking on lights when I should have accomplished that a while ago so I could maintain situational awareness at a critical time. Taking the initiative to activate runway lights early on instead of waiting to see the airport beacon would have given us the visual in time. Also asking for a vector to join outside of the FAF would buy more time to see the airport and control the lighting.

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	1462581
Time
Date	201707
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	PNS.Airport
State Reference	FL
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	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Not Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Person 2
Function	Pilot Flying First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Total 1700
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

Air carrier flight crew reported difficulties during a night visual approach to pns due to the runway lights not being activated via mic clicks. A low altitude alert was issued by ATC and the flight was vectored back around for another attempt.