Narrative:

We were flying the VOR 13L approach into jfk. I was the pilot flying; it was a night VMC approach. As I crossed the map inbound to the runway; I disconnected the ap (autopilot) and instructed the FD (flight display) to be turned off; and the fpv (flight path vector) to be enabled. While turning for the runway and following the approach light system around the corner I erroneously continued the descent below dda (derived decision altitude). I noticed I was low; around 500 ft. AGL; and corrected our altitude back to a proper glide path angle. ATC notified us of a low altitude alert just after I became aware of my mistake.in the approach set-up I had initially considered conducting an rnp (required navigational performance) approach to that runway instead; until realizing that the aircraft was not capable of it. During the briefing I had discussed a notation from the FAF (final approach fix) to the map (missed approach point) that indicated a proper 3 degree glide path equated to 2.2 nm from the map. Subconsciously I interpreted this as a 3 degree path to the runway; and did not do the math on the distance from the map to the runway. Therefore; when crossing the map I continued the descent without consideration that I needed to hold dda altitude longer. Apart from better airmanship; I think there could be a note about this in the company pages. (If one exists; I didn't see it during the set-up). We did a thorough briefing and discussed a lot of threats; but this one got overlooked.

Related reports:

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A319 flight crew reported descending below final approach path into JFK.

Narrative: We were flying the VOR 13L approach into JFK. I was the pilot flying; it was a night VMC approach. As I crossed the MAP inbound to the runway; I disconnected the AP (autopilot) and instructed the FD (Flight Display) to be turned off; and the FPV (Flight Path Vector) to be enabled. While turning for the runway and following the approach light system around the corner I erroneously continued the descent below DDA (Derived Decision Altitude). I noticed I was low; around 500 ft. AGL; and corrected our altitude back to a proper glide path angle. ATC notified us of a low altitude alert just after I became aware of my mistake.In the approach set-up I had initially considered conducting an RNP (Required Navigational Performance) approach to that runway instead; until realizing that the aircraft was not capable of it. During the briefing I had discussed a notation from the FAF (Final Approach Fix) to the MAP (Missed Approach Point) that indicated a proper 3 degree glide path equated to 2.2 nm from the MAP. Subconsciously I interpreted this as a 3 degree path to the runway; and did not do the math on the distance from the MAP to the runway. Therefore; when crossing the MAP I continued the descent without consideration that I needed to hold DDA altitude longer. Apart from better airmanship; I think there could be a note about this in the company pages. (If one exists; I didn't see it during the set-up). We did a thorough briefing and discussed a lot of threats; but this one got overlooked.

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.