Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Confusion; Situational Awareness; Distraction
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT
Flight Crew Became Reoriented
Airport; Human Factors; Environment - Non Weather Related
Broke out of VOR approach Runway 9 MMQT near minimums; autopilot on with LNAV/VNAV. Approach was busy but not overwhelming. Mistook ground feature/structure that looked like a runway with a parallel taxiway (approx two miles short of runway) for the airport and attempted to line up on that 'runway' with autopilot/autothrottles disconnected. Kept wondering; 'Why does this airport look so strange?' Obviously because it was not a runway/airport. The First Officer said; 'Do you see the runway out there?' (approx 300 AGL) At the same time I looked further out and identified the runway with four red on the PAPI; we received a 'TOO LOW; TERRAIN' warning. I immediately added power to correct to the proper glide path and continued to a normal landing.
Large Transport Captain reported difficulty locating the runway at MMQT and receiving a 'Too Low; Terrain' warning.