B767 flight crew reported receiving a low-altitude warning from tower; during a night visual approac...

Narrative:

On left downwind; number one. Approach had cleared us to 2000 ft. I had the speed brakes out and was getting down to 2000. We called the field and we were cleared for a visual approach. I decided to use LNAV/VNAV to intercept final. Abeam FAF; I had the first officer setup the FMS with a 090 heading into the fix prior to FAF. Everything was setup; I selected LNAV; VNAV; and set 400 ft. First officer hadn't seen this before and briefly explained what was going to happen. The airplane intercepted the 090 heading and everything looked correct. Except it wasn't. The airplane did not pick up the path but kept descending. I caught it at 1300ft MSL as tower gave us an altitude alert. The throttles were still in thrust hold. I manually added power to level off and as we turned final; I also noticed the speed brakes were still extended. We retracted the speed brakes; completed the before landing checklist and were stable between 600-700 ft. What should have been a very straight approach wasn't. I should have left 2000 in the altitude window and talked less. I was distracted from my primary duty; flying the airplane. We had plenty of time to intercept final. Do not rush the approach. I should have extended; let my altitude stabilize; and then started my turn. I assumed too much of the automation. I was complacent.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B767 flight crew reported receiving a low-altitude warning from Tower; during a night visual approach; they leveled off and continued the visual approach to an uneventful landing.

Narrative: On left downwind; number one. Approach had cleared us to 2000 ft. I had the speed brakes out and was getting down to 2000. We called the field and we were cleared for a visual approach. I decided to use LNAV/VNAV to intercept final. Abeam FAF; I had the First Officer setup the FMS with a 090 heading into the fix prior to FAF. Everything was setup; I selected LNAV; VNAV; and set 400 ft. First Officer hadn't seen this before and briefly explained what was going to happen. The airplane intercepted the 090 heading and everything looked correct. Except it wasn't. The airplane did not pick up the path but kept descending. I caught it at 1300ft MSL as Tower gave us an altitude alert. The throttles were still in thrust hold. I manually added power to level off and as we turned final; I also noticed the speed brakes were still extended. We retracted the speed brakes; completed the before landing checklist and were stable between 600-700 ft. What should have been a very straight approach wasn't. I should have left 2000 in the altitude window and talked less. I was distracted from my primary duty; flying the airplane. We had plenty of time to intercept final. Do not rush the approach. I should have extended; let my altitude stabilize; and then started my turn. I assumed too much of the automation. I was complacent.

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	1552993
Time
Date	201806
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	B767-300 and 300 ER
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Instrument
Person 2
Function	Pilot Not Flying First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Instrument
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Inflight Event / Encounter Unstabilized Approach Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT

B767 flight crew reported receiving a low-altitude warning from tower; during a night visual approach; they leveled off and continued the visual approach to an uneventful landing.