Narrative:

Flight was a reposition to ekm. While proceeding direct from ashen to ekm; we were issued a descent by fort wayne approach to 2000. I distinctly remember the 2000 as I was planning my descent while keeping all the anti-ice equipment on and had to use speed brakes during the descent in order to keep the N2 at the required minimum of 70% for the wing anti-ice. We were handed off to south bend approach and were told to turn right to a heading of 320 (no altitude issued). Our next set of instructions were to turn left to 300 degrees; maintain 2;500 MSL until established; and cleared ILS 27. When we received those directions we were already at 2;300 MSL descending to 2;000 MSL. ATC issued us a low altitude warning and we mentioned were cleared to 2;000. ATC said negative; we were cleared to 2;500. I requested a review of the tapes while I corrected the altitude to 2;500. The remainder of the approach was uneventful.I suspect there was misinterpretation of our cleared altitude in the hand off between fort wayne approach and south bend approach. Although 2;500 is the minimum altitude for that leg; we were in VMC below the clouds. I did not double check the assigned altitude at 2;000 MSL as I have encountered approach facilities that would assign altitudes lower than on the approach plate as long as we were above the MVA. The situation could have been prevented had we mentioned we were cleared to 2;000 MSL when we read back the heading to 320.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: BE-400 flight crew reported they were given a low altitude alert by ATC on arrival into EKM when they apparently misunderstood a descent clearance.

Narrative: Flight was a reposition to EKM. While proceeding direct from ASHEN to EKM; we were issued a descent by Fort Wayne Approach to 2000. I distinctly remember the 2000 as I was planning my descent while keeping all the anti-ice equipment on and had to use speed brakes during the descent in order to keep the N2 at the required minimum of 70% for the wing anti-ice. We were handed off to South Bend Approach and were told to turn right to a heading of 320 (no altitude issued). Our next set of instructions were to turn left to 300 degrees; maintain 2;500 MSL until established; and cleared ILS 27. When we received those directions we were already at 2;300 MSL descending to 2;000 MSL. ATC issued us a low altitude warning and we mentioned were cleared to 2;000. ATC said negative; we were cleared to 2;500. I requested a review of the tapes while I corrected the altitude to 2;500. The remainder of the approach was uneventful.I suspect there was misinterpretation of our cleared altitude in the hand off between Fort Wayne Approach and South Bend Approach. Although 2;500 is the minimum altitude for that leg; we were in VMC below the clouds. I did not double check the assigned altitude at 2;000 MSL as I have encountered approach facilities that would assign altitudes lower than on the approach plate as long as we were above the MVA. The situation could have been prevented had we mentioned we were cleared to 2;000 MSL when we read back the heading to 320.

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.