Air carrier Captain reported receiving a GPWS terrain alert as well as a low altitude alert from ATC on descent into MTJ after they loaded improper altitudes into the FMC.

Date: 2023-01 · Aircraft: Medium Large Transport; Low Wing; 2 Turbojet Eng · Phase: approach

Anomalies: deviation-altitude-excursion-from-assigned-altitude|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-published-material-policy|inflight-event-encounter-cftt-cfit

Synopsis

Air carrier Captain reported receiving a GPWS terrain alert as well as a low altitude alert from ATC on descent into MTJ after they loaded improper altitudes into the FMC.

Narrative

This was a short flight to an uncontrolled airport at night. This was a threat even if it wasn't in mountainous terrain. On the ground in ZZZ; my First Officer (FO) loaded up the RNAV (GPS) Runway 35 at MTJ. They told me they noticed that the altitudes did not show up in the approach for points MEYRS and YARUB. He entered 14800 ft. at MEYRS and then they entered 12000 ft. at YARUB. In flight; I quickly checked the altitudes and expectation bias kicked in. I remember seeing 12000 ft. at YARUB and thought that that altitude looked correct. At some point before we started the approach; the FO said that we didn't need the 12000 ft. restriction at MEYRS because we had a 12000 ft. restriction at the next point; COQKU. We were cleared to fly the approach by DEN Center and I descended in approach mode; autopilot on. All was fine over MEYRS but as I was descending to 12000 ft. we got an EGPWS; 'caution; terrain!' It was night time and both of us were wondering; 'what the...??' I clicked off the autopilot and leveled off and the FO reached up to put a higher altitude in the ALT window. We had 8600 ft. in there for the FAF EBIHE. Soon after; we got a radio call from DEN Center that they had a low altitude warning on us. By this time; we had traveled closer to YARUB and they told us that if we maintained at least 12000 ft. we were fine. It's one thing to have these warnings go off in the simulator at DENTK but it a whole other thing when it happens in real life at night and you can't see what's in front of you!! The rest of the approach and landing went uneventfully. After we parked at the gate and ran the parking checklist; we both took a very close look at the approach plate to see what happened. We then noticed that we both were wrong on the minimum altitude at YARUB. That altitude is 14800 ft. not 12000 ft! In fact we both noticed a mountain peak NE of YARUB at 11605 ft! That's probably what EGPWS was seeing.

Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.