B737-700 captain reported becoming uncomfortable during descent on arrival into bur about the time A...

Attributes
ACN	1252667
Time
Date	201504
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	BUR.Airport
State Reference	CA
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737-700
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Descent
Route In Use	Vectors
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 126
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude Deviation - Procedural Clearance Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT

Narrative:

We were cleared via radar vectors off airway to 4;000 feet. IAF altitude was 3800 feet. First officer was descending in level change from 6;000 feet. Just didn't look right out the window; so I told the first officer to come out of level change and level off (around 5;000 feet.) I was crosschecking the terrain display and toggling my efb to the approach page from the arrival page. Terrain display showed terrain ok; but still didn't look right. First officer descended to approximately 4700 feet when ATC gave us a terrain alert and told us to climb back to 5000 feet. First officer stated he was sure that we were given 4000 feet but I responded that I didn't feel comfortable flying into the terrain just because we were cleared to do so.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737-700 Captain reported becoming uncomfortable during descent on arrival into BUR about the time ATC issued a low altitude alert. No GPWS warning was received.

Narrative: We were cleared via radar vectors off airway to 4;000 feet. IAF altitude was 3800 feet. FO was descending in Level Change from 6;000 feet. Just didn't look right out the window; so I told the FO to come out of Level Change and level off (around 5;000 feet.) I was crosschecking the terrain display and toggling my EFB to the Approach page from the Arrival page. Terrain display showed terrain OK; but still didn't look right. FO descended to approximately 4700 feet when ATC gave us a terrain alert and told us to climb back to 5000 feet. FO stated he was sure that we were given 4000 feet but I responded that I didn't feel comfortable flying into the terrain just because we were cleared to do so.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

B737-700 captain reported becoming uncomfortable during descent on arrival into bur about the time ATC issued a low altitude alert. No GPWS warning was received.