Narrative:

I was pilot flying. We were cleared direct to the FAF using the ILS as a backup for the visual approach. We had the airport in sight with both of us in terrain mode on our navigation displays. As we were cleared for approach; the pilot flying queried 'do you want 2500 ft in the altitude alerter' as a backup?' I replied 'that is fine.' continuing our descent; I monitored the navigation display to note 2200 ft was the highest terrain displayed in green dot format on the display. Our rate of descent was around 1500 ft and as I was shallowing our vertical speed rate to clear the terrain without a warning we got a 'terrain; terrain; pull up' one time. We did not get a 'whoop; whoop; pull up' I should mention. The terrain turned from green dot displayed to solid green at the time of the alert. I immediately disconnected the autopilot and performed a CFIT maneuver in accordance with the manual. We leveled the aircraft around 3400 ft MSL and reconnected the autopilot and configured for normal landing. I have been into oak 29 only one other time and had been vectored to the ILS in spite of visual conditions. I attribute this event to the lack of quality rest I got between the previous ZZZ turn the morning in march. We both noted the terrain issue ahead but I was a little too slow in arresting our descent rate which caused the alert. We should have maintained a higher altitude until clear of the terrain then put in the final fix altitude. In the future; I will use ATC more to my advantage and wait until we are clear of terrain or use a feeder route altitude near that direct line for safety. I definitely learned about flying from that. Supplemental information from acn 829591: as we continued our descent; passing approximately 3000 ft; we both noticed at the same time that there were hills beneath us for another mile before we would clear them. At our current descent rate of slightly over 1000 FPM; it was apparent that we would need to shallow our descent in order not to set off the egpws due to the closure rate toward the terrain beneath us. Just as I was going to mention that; the pilot flying reached over and decreased the vertical speed mode to shallow the descent. A couple seconds later; the egpws warning sounded with 'terrain' then almost immediately followed by 'terrain; pull up.' the pilot flying immediately disconnected the autopilot and executed an egpws recovery. As soon as the nose pitched up and we began climbing; the egpws warning stopped. We climbed for about 400 ft; confirmed we were clear of the terrain; re-established the approach; and re-engaged the autopilot. The rest of the approach to landing was uneventful.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A transport aircraft experienced a GPWS terrain alert on a night visual approach to OAK Runway 29. The flight crew followed procedures and climbed to end the alert.

Narrative: I was pilot flying. We were cleared direct to the FAF using the ILS as a backup for the visual approach. We had the airport in sight with both of us in Terrain mode on our Navigation Displays. As we were cleared for approach; the pilot flying queried 'Do you want 2500 FT in the altitude alerter' as a backup?' I replied 'That is fine.' Continuing our descent; I monitored the Navigation Display to note 2200 FT was the highest terrain displayed in green dot format on the display. Our rate of descent was around 1500 FT and as I was shallowing our vertical speed rate to clear the terrain without a warning we got a 'Terrain; Terrain; Pull Up' one time. We did not get a 'Whoop; Whoop; Pull Up' I should mention. The terrain turned from green dot displayed to solid green at the time of the alert. I immediately disconnected the autopilot and performed a CFIT maneuver in accordance with the manual. We leveled the aircraft around 3400 FT MSL and reconnected the autopilot and configured for normal landing. I have been into OAK 29 only one other time and had been vectored to the ILS in spite of visual conditions. I attribute this event to the lack of quality rest I got between the previous ZZZ turn the morning in March. We both noted the terrain issue ahead but I was a little too slow in arresting our descent rate which caused the alert. We should have maintained a higher altitude until clear of the terrain then put in the final fix altitude. In the future; I will use ATC more to my advantage and wait until we are clear of terrain or use a feeder route altitude near that direct line for safety. I definitely learned about flying from that. Supplemental information from ACN 829591: As we continued our descent; passing approximately 3000 FT; we both noticed at the same time that there were hills beneath us for another mile before we would clear them. At our current descent rate of slightly over 1000 FPM; it was apparent that we would need to shallow our descent in order not to set off the EGPWS due to the closure rate toward the terrain beneath us. Just as I was going to mention that; the pilot flying reached over and decreased the vertical speed mode to shallow the descent. A couple seconds later; the EGPWS warning sounded with 'Terrain' then almost immediately followed by 'Terrain; Pull Up.' The pilot flying immediately disconnected the autopilot and executed an EGPWS recovery. As soon as the nose pitched up and we began climbing; the EGPWS warning stopped. We climbed for about 400 FT; confirmed we were clear of the terrain; re-established the approach; and re-engaged the autopilot. The rest of the approach to landing was uneventful.

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.