A B737-300 flight crew on a night visual approach to las became uncomfortable when the captain notic...

Attributes
ACN	819560
Time
Date	200901
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	LAS.Airport
State Reference	NV
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737-300
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Flying
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 251 Flight Crew Type 2000
Person 2
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Events
Anomaly	Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT

Narrative:

It was a clear night. We were cleared direct condy and then subsequently cleared for visual approach to runway 25R from 25+ miles but from southeast of the airport. Had always been brought in from the northeast or east. The track took us south of hoover dam and over some terrain. When we cleared direct condy; we put 3;800 ft in the window. We noticed that the terrain was pretty high and the captain said; 'why don't we level off here before going any lower.' we leveled off and subsequently got the 'terrain' alert and executed a terrain pull-up in accordance with the book. It ended and we continued the approach uneventfully. Better preplanning when we are cleared for an approach from that sector.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B737-300 flight crew on a night visual approach to LAS became uncomfortable when the Captain noticed nearby high terrain. They subsequently got a GPWS terrain alert and executed the prescribed pull-up.

Narrative: It was a clear night. We were cleared direct CONDY and then subsequently cleared for visual approach to Runway 25R from 25+ miles but from southeast of the airport. Had always been brought in from the northeast or east. The track took us south of Hoover Dam and over some terrain. When we cleared direct CONDY; we put 3;800 FT in the window. We noticed that the terrain was pretty high and the Captain said; 'Why don't we level off here before going any lower.' We leveled off and subsequently got the 'Terrain' alert and executed a terrain pull-up in accordance with the book. It ended and we continued the approach uneventfully. Better preplanning when we are cleared for an approach from that sector.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.

A B737-300 flight crew on a night visual approach to las became uncomfortable when the captain noticed nearby high terrain. They subsequently got a GPWS terrain alert and executed the prescribed pull-up.