An air carrier first officer reported that the captain flew a night visual approach to avl runway 34...

Narrative:

I was the pilot not flying and the captain was the pilot flying; at cruise while approaching avl the captain briefed a visual approach to runway 34; backed up with the ILS. Once the captain and I established visual contact with avl and we were subsequently cleared for the visual approach runway 34. The pilot flying instructed me to set 3;700 ft in the altitude alerter for a visual reference to cross the FAF of ennka. While making the base-final leg of the visual approach we received 'terrain; terrain'. The captain immediately initiated a climb. After a few hundred feet it was determined that we were clear of all terrain and established on the approach path. We queried the tower. The pilot flying then continued the decent on the glideslope and completed an uneventful landing. It was not brought to my attention until the next morning by the captain that visual approaches were not authorized at night into avl. [I was] unaware that visual approaches were not authorized into avl at night while tower is open.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An air carrier First Officer reported that the Captain flew a night visual approach to AVL Runway 34 contrary to Company policy prohibiting night VMC approaches to AVL. The First Officer was unaware of the prohibition.

Narrative: I was the pilot not flying and the Captain was the pilot flying; at cruise while approaching AVL the Captain briefed a visual approach to Runway 34; backed up with the ILS. Once the Captain and I established visual contact with AVL and we were subsequently cleared for the visual approach Runway 34. The pilot flying instructed me to set 3;700 FT in the altitude alerter for a visual reference to cross the FAF of ENNKA. While making the base-final leg of the visual approach we received 'Terrain; Terrain'. The Captain immediately initiated a climb. After a few hundred feet it was determined that we were clear of all terrain and established on the approach path. We queried the Tower. The pilot flying then continued the decent on the glideslope and completed an uneventful landing. It was not brought to my attention until the next morning by the Captain that visual approaches were not authorized at night into AVL. [I was] unaware that visual approaches were not authorized into AVL at night while Tower is open.

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.

Attributes
ACN	915248
Time
Date	201010
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	AVL.Airport
State Reference	NC
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Commercial Fixed Wing
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT

An air carrier first officer reported that the captain flew a night visual approach to avl runway 34 contrary to company policy prohibiting night VMC approaches to avl. The first officer was unaware of the prohibition.