Commercial Fixed Wing
Flight Crew Commercial
Situational Awareness; Workload
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT
Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Returned To Clearance
Human Factors
It was clear and sunny and had all the terrain in sight during the entire flight. We were cleared for the LDA DME Runway 25 into EGE prior to Kremmling. I was the pilot monitoring. After passing Kremmling VOR above 14;000 FT we VTO'd and started our descent to AQULA down to 12;900 FT. Neither one of us noticed that we had accidentally descended below the published route between Kremmling and VOAXA. ATC issued a low altitude alert and we immediately responded with correcting and we have ALL terrain in sight. We immediately corrected up to 13;800 FT which took just a few seconds and by then we crossed VOAXA and continued our descent. During the entire flight and approach we had the terrain in sight at all times. We could have verified that the VNAV was going to make the crossing restriction; but if we had just descended via the VSI mode and selected each altitude it would have been completely avoided.
Air Carrier First Officer as Pilot Not Flying (NFP) reports a descent below the MEA after being cleared for the LDA DME Runway 25 approach to EGE in VMC. ATC issued a low altitude alert and the crew corrected.