Narrative:

On vectors for approach to runway 27 at san. Given turn from downwind to base; heading 180. Called traffic on final in sight. Approach shot us thru final and hurriedly gave us a quick; 'fly heading 270; follow the other carrier; cleared for the approach.' we ended up compensating for approach's error and corrected back to final. Flew uneventful approach through final configuration. Still not given switch to tower by approach; and proceeded down final. Socal oftentimes gives late switches to tower at san. At the point where we as a crew would normally have noticed the failure to be switched to tower; the automated callout boomed 'five hundred;' which was a major distraction. I scanned my altimeter; which said 700' MSL (san is 9' MSL) to verify something was not amiss. My thoughts automatically went to making sure the altimeter was set properly and crosscheck other instruments. We then got a 'two hundred' call at approximately 350' MSL; again continuing to distract us with erroneous information. From then on I was anticipating what erroneous distracting call might come next while still focusing on the approach. I believe the combination of approach control's failure to switch us to tower and the distractions from the talking radio altimeter prevented us from catching the frequency error. We landed uneventfully and realized our mistake on rollout when preparing to exit the runway. As we switched to ground; nothing was mentioned and nothing was heard from tower in the negative. In retrospect; it would be beneficial to the company pilots if we knew walking into the cockpit that the jet has a talking radio altimeter. Instead we find out on short final during the most critical portion of the flight; when our normal per-the-fom callouts are interrupted by the unanticipated and distracting automated callouts coming in loud and clear through our headsets. Also tweak the system so that non-precision approaches into airports with terrain don't erroneously start barking out erroneous callouts (i.e. 'Five hundred' at 700' MSL for an airport that is essentially sea level). Also; harp on ATC to do positive radio switches to tower.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Radio altimeter callout distractions and lack of a positive hand off to Tower result in landing without clearance for a B737 flight crew.

Narrative: On vectors for approach to Runway 27 at SAN. Given turn from downwind to base; heading 180. Called traffic on final in sight. Approach shot us thru final and hurriedly gave us a quick; 'Fly heading 270; follow the other carrier; cleared for the approach.' We ended up compensating for Approach's error and corrected back to final. Flew uneventful approach through final configuration. Still not given switch to Tower by Approach; and proceeded down final. SoCal oftentimes gives late switches to Tower at SAN. At the point where we as a crew would normally have noticed the failure to be switched to Tower; the automated callout boomed 'five hundred;' which was a major distraction. I scanned my altimeter; which said 700' MSL (SAN is 9' MSL) to verify something was not amiss. My thoughts automatically went to making sure the altimeter was set properly and crosscheck other instruments. We then got a 'two hundred' call at approximately 350' MSL; again continuing to distract us with erroneous information. From then on I was anticipating what erroneous distracting call might come next while still focusing on the approach. I believe the combination of Approach Control's failure to switch us to Tower and the distractions from the talking radio altimeter prevented us from catching the frequency error. We landed uneventfully and realized our mistake on rollout when preparing to exit the runway. As we switched to Ground; nothing was mentioned and nothing was heard from Tower in the negative. In retrospect; it would be beneficial to the company pilots if we knew walking into the cockpit that the jet has a talking radio Altimeter. Instead we find out on short final during the most critical portion of the flight; when our normal per-the-FOM callouts are interrupted by the unanticipated and distracting automated callouts coming in loud and clear through our headsets. Also tweak the system so that non-precision approaches into airports with terrain don't erroneously start barking out erroneous callouts (i.e. 'five hundred' at 700' MSL for an airport that is essentially sea level). Also; harp on ATC to do positive radio switches to Tower.

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.