Flight Crew Commercial
Situational Awareness; Confusion
Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Returned To Clearance
Human Factors
At 3;000 FT after being cleared for a Visual approach at MCI I decided to extend the downwind leg to intercept course outside the FAF. I mis read the altitude at FAF and began to descend. upon starting our base turn atc said we appeared low. I started a climb to get back on profile. We intercepted the G/S just inside the FAF configuered for a stabilized approach and landed normally.Although I had reviewed the approach plate I inadvertantly thought it was a different altitude at the FAF. Lack of visual cues and night time ops; also situational awareness contributed.This was an eye opening lesson. how one can easily make a simple mistake of mis remembering an altitude. Even on the clearest of days under the best conditions errors can be made and missed. Also reminded me that night time ops can be a challenge even to the most seasoned of us due to the lack of all the visual cues available during daylight ops. Check and recheck altitudes especially on visuals when atc is no longer providing alt guidance. Lesson learned!
Descending into MCI we were being vectored by ATC to a right downwind for 19R right at 3;000ft. ATC asked if we had the traffic on short final in sight we acknowledged that we did and received clearance for a visual approach to follow the proceeding aircraft. We began a descent and a turn to base leg when we simultaneously with ATC recognized that we were low and made immediate corrections to our profile; continued our turn to final and intercepted the localizer and glide slope and were stabilized for a normal landing. Proper altitude for segment was misinterpreted and mistakenly verified.I strive and take great pride in always trying to complete the 'perfect flight' in reference to Company Policies; Procedures and SOPs. If I may make one suggestion that might alleviate as many opportunities for this to occur; is to consider requesting vectors to the final rather than accepting a visual approach on a downwind leg; especially at night.
A320 flight crew reports getting low during a night visual approach from the downwind position. ATC is the first to detect that the crew has descended out of 3;000 feet prematurely.