S56 controller described a descent below MVA; the reporter indicating the flight crew incorrectly sp...

Narrative:

An E135 came over on the RNAV arrival that puts aircraft on the localizer for runway 16L. General aviation/air taxi aircraft prefer to land runway 17 for FBO parking. I instructed the E135 to proceed to one of the fixes on the ILS to runway 17 and descend him to 120 (the MVA is 118). He cleared the 118 MVA and entered the 110 MVA. I descended him to 110. When he hit the fix he made a 90 degree left turn into the 118 MVA. I immediately climbed him and gave him a low altitude alert. I also turned him back toward lower terrain. I asked him what happened and he said they misspelled the next fix and the autopilot took them the wrong direction. He continued to have trouble inbound with reading back the correct headings; altitudes; clearance etc.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: S56 Controller described a descent below MVA; the reporter indicating the flight crew incorrectly spelled an inbound fix causing the aircraft to turn the wrong direction into higher terrain.

Narrative: An E135 came over on the RNAV arrival that puts aircraft on the localizer for Runway 16L. General aviation/air taxi aircraft prefer to land Runway 17 for FBO parking. I instructed the E135 to proceed to one of the fixes on the ILS to Runway 17 and descend him to 120 (the MVA is 118). He cleared the 118 MVA and entered the 110 MVA. I descended him to 110. When he hit the fix he made a 90 degree left turn into the 118 MVA. I immediately climbed him and gave him a low altitude alert. I also turned him back toward lower terrain. I asked him what happened and he said they misspelled the next fix and the autopilot took them the wrong direction. He continued to have trouble inbound with reading back the correct headings; altitudes; clearance etc.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 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.

Attributes
ACN	1001469
Time
Date	201203
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	OGD.Airport
State Reference	UT
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	EMB ERJ 135 ER/LR
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Descent
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Approach Departure
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Track / Heading All Types Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT

S56 controller described a descent below MVA; the reporter indicating the flight crew incorrectly spelled an inbound fix causing the aircraft to turn the wrong direction into higher terrain.