Large Transport; Low Wing; 2 Turbojet Eng
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 212; Flight Crew Total 4047; Flight Crew Type 2803
Workload; Situational Awareness; Confusion
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT; Inflight Event / Encounter Unstabilized Approach
Flight Crew Became Reoriented
Human Factors; Weather; Company Policy; Airport; Procedure
We were vectored for the approach to 27 rnav approach. We had just flown the very same approach earlier with no issues and this may have led to a false sense of security. Had a visual on the airport on down wind and base leg crossed final slightly high but had runway in sight so did not expect any issues. Caught up to rnav descent guidance (brick) and then noticed that I might lose sight of the airport soon due to a thin cloud layer. I pushed the nose over to keep sight of the airport . At this point I felt uncomfortable and started to level out and prepare for a go around. ATC called with a low altitude alert and asked to confirm we had a visual on the airport. I could see the outlines of the runway and the VASI so we called the airport and descended. At this point the approach was relatively uneventful. We landed on speed and on the first third of the runway. I should have gone around and not tried to keep the airport in sight.
Vectored and rushed down by ATC to intercept Rnav 27; ATC reported a 'low alert' and asked to confirm if we had 'visual.' We could see through the thin layer of broken clouds the vasi and runway but we elected to continue. We probably should have gone around.
A flight crew on a visual approach to SAN Runway 27 received an ATC LOW ALTITUDE alert while descending through a thin cloud layer prior to clearly seeing the VASI.