Crj-200 flight crew reported a cftt event while on the VOR or GPS runway 13L to jfk airport.

Attributes
ACN	1621157
Time
Date	201902
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	JFK.Tower
State Reference	NY
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Regional Jet 200 ER/LR (CRJ200)
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Final Approach
Route In Use	Other VOR OR GPS RWY 13L/R
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Person 2
Function	Pilot Not Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Instrument
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Altitude Overshoot Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT

Narrative:

We received a low altitude alert from kennedy tower while flying the VOR or GPS 13L approach into jfk. We were in the process of correcting our altitude when tower gave us the alert and when we rolled out onto final we were only slightly below glide path with one white and three red on the VASI. We were fully configured and ready to land on airspeed with a shallow descent rate or 200-300 foot per minute. I was flying and started the descent too early after crossing dmyhl (the missed approach point) at 800 feet. This was only the second time I have flown this particular approach and the first time doing it at night. Like I said it was a very shallow descent I started after dmyhl; I just started it too early; the captain noticed I looked a little low and advised me to level out my descent. As I was correcting our altitude tower gave us an altitude alert and a new altimeter setting of 30.33; we still had 30.37 set from the current ATIS that we called up with. The problem was resolved almost immediately and we performed a safe and stable approach to land when we rolled onto final.suggestions: find a way to provide advisory VNAV on this approach; or practice this approach in the simulators to better prepare pilots for it and prevent them from getting low.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CRJ-200 flight crew reported a CFTT event while on the VOR OR GPS RWY 13L to JFK airport.

Narrative: We received a low altitude alert from Kennedy Tower while flying the VOR or GPS 13L approach into JFK. We were in the process of correcting our altitude when Tower gave us the alert and when we rolled out onto final we were only slightly below glide path with one white and three red on the VASI. We were fully configured and ready to land on airspeed with a shallow descent rate or 200-300 foot per minute. I was flying and started the descent too early after crossing DMYHL (the missed approach point) at 800 feet. This was only the second time I have flown this particular approach and the first time doing it at night. Like I said it was a very shallow descent I started after DMYHL; I just started it too early; the Captain noticed I looked a little low and advised me to level out my descent. As I was correcting our altitude Tower gave us an altitude alert and a new altimeter setting of 30.33; we still had 30.37 set from the current ATIS that we called up with. The problem was resolved almost immediately and we performed a safe and stable approach to land when we rolled onto final.Suggestions: Find a way to provide advisory VNAV on this approach; or practice this approach in the simulators to better prepare pilots for it and prevent them from getting low.

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.