2023-08 · NASA ASRS report 2029693
Air Carrier flight crew reported ATC issuing a descent below minimum vectoring altitude while on a clearance to an approach fix in the area of terrain during IMC weather avoidance. The crew accepted the ATC assigned headings and altitudes with no cockpit warning and intercepted the ILS for a safe landing.
While cleared for the ILS 07R at VHHH from limes; we realized that there was a large thunder cell over STELA. Asked approach if we could go LIMES direct to ZZZZZ and then continue the approach. They approved it. When inside of Limes; we asked if we could descend to 1600 ft. (final approach crossing altitude and they told us to descend and maintain 2000 ft. While descending from 3000 ft. to 2000 ft. approach asked us if we could see the terrain off to our right. We were IMC at the time and couldn't. We never got any GPS warnings. They then vectored us to heading 340 and 320. After we crossed through the localizer they vectored us back to heading 090. They asked us if we could see the airport; and we could. PF disconnected the autopilot and flew the airplane correctly to Runway 7R. After landing; Ground asked us to call a phone number to talk to our controller's supervisor. We called them and the supervisor said the they weren't supposed to allow us to go from LIMES to ZZZZZ; because it was below their MVA and that is why we got such aggressive vectors inside the final approach fix. Situation awareness was lost at any time or terrain separation. I never felt uncomfortable about risk; just got really busy for a bit!Cause: Rapid; large turn vectoring while joining the localizer.Suggestions: I understand the supervisor told Captain Approach was not supposed to give us the vector to ZZZZZ. We could have asked for vector to final or ZZZZZ1 instead.
While cleared for the ILS 07R at VHHH from limes; we realized that there was a large thunder cell over STELA. Asked approach if we could go LIMES direct to ZZZZZand then continue the approach. They approved it. When inside of Limes; we asked if we could descend to 1600 ft. (final approach crossing altitude) and they told us to descend and maintain 2000 ft. While descending from 3000 ft. to 2000 ft. approach asked us if we could see the terrain off to our right. We were IMC at the time and couldn't. We never got any GPWS warnings. They then vectored us to heading 340 and 320. After we crossed through the localizer they vectored us back to heading 090. They asked us if we could see the airport; and we could. PF disconnected the autopilot and flew the airplane correctly to Runway 7R. After landing; ATC asked us to call a phone number to talk to our controller. We called them and the supervisor said the they weren't supposed to allow us to go from LIMES to ZZZZZ; because it was below their MVA and that is why we got such aggressive vectors inside the final approach fix. FO did a great job flying the aircraft and I don't think situation awareness was lost at any time or terrain separation.Cause: Thunderstorms caused us to deviate off the normal approach. IMC; night with terrain were contributing factors. ATC allowing us to fly from LIMES to ZZZZZ even though it was below MVA.Suggestions: ATC could have suggested we go LIMES ZZZZZ1 and then the approach. Would have allowed them to descend us to an altitude within their MVA.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
Loading the flight search…
Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.
We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.
Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.
Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.