Large Transport; Low Wing; 2 Turbojet Eng
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine
Situational Awareness; Distraction; Communication Breakdown; Confusion; Workload
ATC Issue All Types; Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT
Flight Crew Executed Go Around / Missed Approach
Procedure; Human Factors; Aircraft; ATC Equipment / Nav Facility / Buildings; Weather
As we were switched over to Bogota FIR; it was very hard to understand the Controller because there was a high pitched squeal on the radio. I felt like my SA (Situational Awareness) started to go down at this point because I was focusing on trying to understand the Controller. I misunderstood multiple clearances and had to ask twice for the clearance. We were given the RNAV RNP X 31L. The Captain and I had briefed and gone over the points on both the STAR and approach multiple times each. We were finally headed to AMVES when we were cleared direct to BO710. We briefed [that] we were going to do our LAVS 1 nm prior to this point. 1 nm mile prior the Captain rolled in 8400 feet in the MCP alt window. For some reason we were stuck in VNAV ALT. She selected 500 fpm down on the VS to get us going down and quickly selected VNAV again. We were high on the path and realized we were past the final approach point about the same time we got a terrain caution. The Captain called for a go around at this point. I think there were many contributing factors that led to this event. First of all I have less than 75 hours in the airplane as well as having never been to Bogota before. My SA started going down when we started to have communication issues [with] Bogota center. I had trouble understanding clearances which contributed to my task saturation. We briefed and checked points multiple times on the first approach going into [Runway] 31 as well as the LAVS procedure. I think since we had such a high ground speed between high altitude and tail wind that may have caused us to be high on the path before we had a chance to get on it. Taking the clearance direct to BO710 as opposed to taking direct AMVES did us no favors. I was task saturated and unfortunately was not as good of a backup as I should have been.
Entering Bogota airspace the radio frequency 124.2 was unreadable due to a high pitch squeal so receiving and understanding ATC instructions were difficult. Unable to clearly understand the approach we were given we asked for the RNAV-X 31L. This is the approach we thoroughly briefed. After several vectors and route changes we were cleared direct to BO710 (IAF) at FL 15;000; cleared for the approach. One mile prior we did our LAVS procedure with the airplane in VNAV ALT. I used v/s -500 to get the airplane out of ALT and immediately went to VNAV. We were slowing and configuring below 180 kts. We recognized we were not in VNAV PATH at the FAP while task saturated and fully configured. Shortly thereafter we received a terrain caution and executed a published missed approach with no issues. I believe the missed approach was initiated above 11;200 and above radar altitude 1300 ft. There was no updated ATIS; the weather was lower than the last we received so we were IMC during the approach phase. There was a significant tailwind at the time we needed to slow down and go down. (I did slow early to account somewhat for this). Shortcuts on the approach; language barrier; poor radios; VNAV ALT close to initial fix with the tailwind. Even with a slower airspeed and understanding how to get out of ALT I'm not certain we would have caught the path. I should not have taken the shortcut from AMVES to BO710. This would have given the airplane (and us) more time to be stable.
Air carrier flight crew reported receiving a terrain alert on approach and executed a missed approach.