Large Transport; Low Wing; 2 Turbojet Eng
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Type 1094
Communication Breakdown; Situational Awareness
Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Took Evasive Action; Flight Crew Executed Go Around / Missed Approach
Human Factors; Procedure
On Leg 3 of Day 1 out of 3; the Capt (PF) and I (PM) were flying into MFR. Flight was uneventful until we descended to 12000 ft and approached the MFR Valley. We were about 20 miles south of the airport and ATC asked if airport was in sight. This was my first mistake because I answered her immediately without conferring with the Captain. Neither one of us were familiar with the area even though we spent most of cruise analyzing the terrain around the airport and coming up with the plan to request Rwy 14. ATC then cleared us visual Rwy 14. The Capt reminded me to ask for his concurrence in the future. Our second mistake was to not ask for radar vectors after 'Cleared the visual to Rwy 14' was given. ATC cleared us down to 6000 ft I believe and gave us clearance for right base to Rwy 14. We had the approach set to ILS 14 and confirmed all the altitudes. This situation of 12000 ft in a bowl of hilly terrain and being cleared the visual at night really set us up for failure. At this point we are flying north on downwind managing to make it down to 6000 ft and then start descending to 4700 ft because that was the altitude at AMASE at 11.8 DME and that was where the PF was planning on turning right base. Laterally we were most likely well wide of a normal downwind spacing. As we started getting abeam OSSAJ we started seeing green terrain dots on our displays. This was my first warning that those green dots do not represent clear of terrain and that we would need to turn very soon. The PF asked me to put in 3800 ft; the altitude at OSSAJ; because we were going to turn before AMASE. We were descending to about 4000 ft at this point and got our first 'Terrain.' He started to turn more aggressively toward right base and then we got 2 yellow patches on our display about the 11:30 position followed by a 'Terrain Terrain.' At this point we executed a go-around as we turned toward the runway safe of terrain. We notified ATC of the go-around and they asked what the reason was. We asked them for vectors for RWY 14 ILS and were handed off to approach. As Approach was vectoring us to Rwy 14 we asked what the Min Safe Altitude was for that area in which ATC replied it was 5300 ft. We understand that accepting a visual approach relieves ATC of responsibility; what we are puzzled at is they did not say a word to us as we descended to 4000 ft on a downwind leg. The second approach and landing were uneventful.
Air carrier First Officer reported executing a go-around after receiving a GPWS terrain warning on a visual approach to MFR.