B737 flight crew reported after descending to the altitude assigned by ATC; they were told to climb ...

Attributes
ACN	1742337
Time
Date	202005
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	D01.TRACON
State Reference	CO
Environment
Flight Conditions	Mixed
Light	Dusk
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737-700
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Route In Use	Vectors
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 100 Flight Crew Type 1200
Person 2
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Instrument
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 115 Flight Crew Type 13800
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT

Narrative:

While descending on the RNAV arrival; approach gave us a clearance to descend to 11;000 ft. And airspeed was our discretion. At this point on the approach; it was VFR. We were on a right downwind with the airport and preceding aircraft on a base leg in sight. Approach control instructed us to slow to 190 kts. And then descend to 7;000 ft. I pulled the speedbrake lever and dialed in 7;000 ft. There was a cloud layer just north of the field; but at this point; both the captain and I had the other traffic in sight. As we were coming through about 7;500 ft.; approach instructed us to slow to 150 kts.; turn to a heading of 040; and descend to 6;000 ft. This all happened very quickly and the expectation bias was that we were going to keep the approach tight with the other aircraft and follow them in. As the other aircraft turned base to final; they lost sight of the runway because of the cloud layer just north of the field. Approach asked us if we still had the traffic aircraft in sight. At that point. The other aircraft was well inside the cloud layer so we did not. Approach gave us instructions to turn to a heading of 140 to intercept the ILS course. As we were coming through about 6;600 ft. Approach told us to maintain 7;000 ft. And said that the MVA(minimum vectoring altitude) for that sector was 7;000 ft. We leveled off and climbed back to 7;000 ft.; and intercepted the ILS course on the 140 heading.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737 flight crew reported after descending to the altitude assigned by ATC; they were told to climb back to their previous altitude because they were below the Minimum Vectoring Altitude.

Narrative: While descending on the RNAV Arrival; Approach gave us a clearance to descend to 11;000 ft. and airspeed was our discretion. At this point on the approach; it was VFR. We were on a right downwind with the airport and preceding aircraft on a base leg in sight. Approach Control instructed us to slow to 190 kts. and then descend to 7;000 ft. I pulled the speedbrake lever and dialed in 7;000 ft. There was a cloud layer just north of the field; but at this point; both the Captain and I had the other traffic in sight. As we were coming through about 7;500 ft.; Approach instructed us to slow to 150 kts.; turn to a heading of 040; and descend to 6;000 ft. This all happened very quickly and the expectation bias was that we were going to keep the approach tight with the other aircraft and follow them in. As the other aircraft turned base to final; they lost sight of the runway because of the cloud layer just north of the field. Approach asked us if we still had the traffic aircraft in sight. At that point. the other aircraft was well inside the cloud layer so we did not. Approach gave us instructions to turn to a heading of 140 to intercept the ILS course. As we were coming through about 6;600 ft. Approach told us to maintain 7;000 ft. and said that the MVA(Minimum Vectoring Altitude) for that sector was 7;000 ft. We leveled off and climbed back to 7;000 ft.; and intercepted the ILS course on the 140 heading.

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 flight crew reported after descending to the altitude assigned by ATC; they were told to climb back to their previous altitude because they were below the minimum vectoring altitude.