Narrative:

During the descent [into bhm] around kiosk; ATC assigned a heading that took us direct towards lowga; the final approach fix for the ILS runway 24. We were cleared to descend to 3;000 ft. The pilot flying was the first officer. Around 4;000 ft the GPWS produced an aural 'terrain terrain' and master warning. As the captain; I was confused why we were getting the warning because we were above the MSA of 3;700 ft and; as it was a beautiful day; I had been looking outside and didn't see any concerning terrain. [Our airline] shows a video during recurrent ground school of a crew flying into [a mountainous airport] who elected not to perform the escape maneuver as an example of what not to do. I could see the first officer was confused as well; as he was hesitating. I elected to follow the poh and commanded; 'set max thrust. Check spoilers.' as I reached to increase the throttles; he complied with max thrust and had a handful of an airplane. We had been descending at 250 knots with max flight spoilers deployed. The first officer had yet to retract the spoilers so I retracted them. At this point we were rocketing past 5;000 ft so I set 6;000 ft in the altitude selector and commanded a climb to 6;000 ft. ATC was busy so it took 2 radio calls to get him to understand our altitude deviation. He then was confused as to why; but finally understood terrain. We then got vectors back around for the ILS 24 and completed the flight uneventfully. Discussing the event with the first officer; he believes our descent rate was 1900 ft per min just prior to the event. Looking at the approach plate for ILS 24 there is a 1203 ft tower approximately 10 nm east of lowga that possibly could be the cause. Reading the post event report; I believe we had mode 2A of the egpws. This event was particularly surprising because we were above MSA and there was no 'caution' message leading up to the event. The flight attendants told us that during the escape maneuver one of the fas had to hold onto the other who was in the galley to prevent falling backwards down the aisle. To prevent a similar incident and potential injury; I recommend analyzing the flight data to determine if the terrain clearance floor database of the egpws should be updated for the area east of bhm to kiosk.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier Captain reported receiving a GPWS terrain warning on approaching to BHM that could have been a false warning or possibly a high descent rate toward terrain.

Narrative: During the descent [into BHM] around KIOSK; ATC assigned a heading that took us direct towards LOWGA; the final approach fix for the ILS Runway 24. We were cleared to descend to 3;000 ft. The Pilot Flying was the FO. Around 4;000 ft the GPWS produced an aural 'TERRAIN TERRAIN' and master warning. As the Captain; I was confused why we were getting the warning because we were above the MSA of 3;700 ft and; as it was a beautiful day; I had been looking outside and didn't see any concerning terrain. [Our airline] shows a video during recurrent ground school of a crew flying into [a mountainous airport] who elected not to perform the escape maneuver as an example of what not to do. I could see the FO was confused as well; as he was hesitating. I elected to follow the POH and commanded; 'Set max thrust. Check spoilers.' As I reached to increase the throttles; he complied with max thrust and had a handful of an airplane. We had been descending at 250 knots with max flight spoilers deployed. The FO had yet to retract the spoilers so I retracted them. At this point we were rocketing past 5;000 ft so I set 6;000 ft in the altitude selector and commanded a climb to 6;000 ft. ATC was busy so it took 2 radio calls to get him to understand our altitude deviation. He then was confused as to why; but finally understood terrain. We then got vectors back around for the ILS 24 and completed the flight uneventfully. Discussing the event with the FO; he believes our descent rate was 1900 ft per min just prior to the event. Looking at the approach plate for ILS 24 there is a 1203 ft tower approximately 10 nm east of LOWGA that possibly could be the cause. Reading the post event report; I believe we had Mode 2A of the EGPWS. This event was particularly surprising because we were above MSA and there was no 'caution' message leading up to the event. The flight attendants told us that during the escape maneuver one of the FAs had to hold onto the other who was in the galley to prevent falling backwards down the aisle. To prevent a similar incident and potential injury; I recommend analyzing the flight data to determine if the Terrain Clearance Floor Database of the EGPWS should be updated for the area east of BHM to KIOSK.

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.