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Nct TRACON controller reported that an aircraft on an arrival descended below the sector MVA.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 1707508 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201912 |
| Local Time Of Day | 1201-1800 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | NCT.TRACON |
| State Reference | CA |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | Small Aircraft |
| Flight Phase | Descent |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Approach |
| Qualification | Air Traffic Control Fully Certified |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Deviation - Altitude Overshoot Deviation - Procedural Clearance Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT |
Narrative:
I was working on southeast plan; and was holding a few IFR aircraft outside of sjc. At the same time; aircraft X was inbound to nuq on the ILS. I cleared the aircraft for the approach to cross zapep at 055. While I was coordinating with another sector for a point-out of my holding aircraft; aircraft X descended below the MVA. I issued a low altitude alert to the pilot; he responded that he was correcting; and I climbed the aircraft to 051 until established again. The aircraft landed without incident. I actually believe the system worked well in this instance. The aircraft descended below the MVA; the alarm went off; the low altitude alert was issued; and the pilot corrected. I do believe that the descent was a pilot deviation as he indicated correcting immediately. I would have reported this to management at the time; but the culture at this facility is trending to be analytical and punitive; not supporting a safety culture.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: NCT TRACON Controller reported that an aircraft on an arrival descended below the sector MVA.
Narrative: I was working on southeast plan; and was holding a few IFR aircraft outside of SJC. At the same time; Aircraft X was inbound to NUQ on the ILS. I cleared the aircraft for the approach to cross ZAPEP at 055. While I was coordinating with another sector for a point-out of my holding aircraft; Aircraft X descended below the MVA. I issued a low altitude alert to the pilot; he responded that he was correcting; and I climbed the aircraft to 051 until established again. The aircraft landed without incident. I actually believe the system worked well in this instance. The aircraft descended below the MVA; the alarm went off; the low altitude alert was issued; and the pilot corrected. I do believe that the descent was a pilot deviation as he indicated correcting immediately. I would have reported this to management at the time; but the culture at this facility is trending to be analytical and punitive; not supporting a safety culture.
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.