Regional Jet CL65; Undifferentiated or Other Model
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Situational Awareness
Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT
Flight Crew FLC complied w / Automation / Advisory; Flight Crew Became Reoriented
Human Factors
Flight to AVP. Conditions were night; VFR; unlimited visibility. I was acting as pilot monitoring and Line Check Airman (LCA); my First Officer was a new hire acting as pilot flying.Approach vectored us on a right downwind for Runway 22. We called the field in sight and were cleared for the visual approach. Having experience at this airport I was aware of the terrain and tall towers in the vicinity and made a mental note to identify terrain and obstacle heights that would be a factor. Visibility was excellent and prior to beginning the approach we were able to visually identify the multiple high intensity lit towers including the highest one as depicted on the 11-2 chart (height 2;744). Abeam the airport my First Officer descended from 4;000 to 3;000. At this time we were roughly 3-4 NM abeam the airport. The downwind path that we were on kept us inside of the 2;744 foot tower. Beyond that tower is another high intensity lit tower at 2;125 feet. I had visual of that tower as well; and our path on the downwind appeared to also keep us just inside of it. I am not sure if my First Officer saw it as well. As my First Officer was judging when to begin his base turn we got the EGPWS warning 'Terrain; Pull Up.' My First Officer immediately began a terrain escape maneuver. I knew that we were close to the 2;125 foot tower; but did not think we were close enough to get the EGPWS warning. I instructed my First Officer to climb a few hundred feet and make his base turn. We completed the visual approach without further incident.Upon landing we went through an in depth debrief on what happened. We were able to discuss that descending to 3;000 feet was sufficient to keep him 1;000 feet above the terrain in the vicinity; but less than 1;000 feet from the obstacles. We also debriefed possible solutions to prevent something like this in the future including.1. A thorough briefing of a visual approach in mountainous terrain to including identifying of terrain heights and obstacles.2. Flying a tighter traffic pattern; and3. Possibly requesting an ILS even on excellent visibility nights.
This was an IOE flight for me and my low experience in the aircraft and at the airport likely was to blame. The GPWS was likely triggered by either the 2;744 foot tower or the 2;125 foot tower. Both of these towers are in close proximity to the WEXIN fix on the ILS Runway 22; which is at 2;800 feet.The Captain and I both discussed that I should have stayed at 4;000 feet until established on the localizer farther out than WEXIN. Visual approaches to Runway 22 inside of COSBY should be exercised with caution to avoid triggering the GPWS even if the antennas are in sight.
CRJ flight crew reported receiving a GPWS terrain warning on a night visual approach to AVP.