Narrative:

I can honestly say that this is the first time in years that this was not a fatigue related issue. We were given the VOR DME-D approach; circle to land. The weather was reported at 700' overcast. We were vectored inside of; to the east of judyy at 3000'. Cleared for the approach; we were just approaching lippy; descending just above 2;600'. I was fully configured and on speed; with autopilot engaged. As we approached 1700' the tower with alarm in his voice stated; aircraft X check your altitude immediately! Something to the effect of level off or climb and he said it 3 times. I was totally freaked out. My adrenalin shot through the roof. This set me up for a chain of events. I believe it totally flustered the pilot in command (PIC) as he stammered on the radio as our minds were racing about what the hell just went wrong. I glanced at my ipad and verified we were good for 1600'; kicked the autopilot off in preparation for a go around. I was very confused for a period of time. It was clear we were not going to see the airport and I hit the go around button and at about the same time tower asked incredulously did we not see the airport as we were approaching the airport. He told us to climb to 3;000' runway heading. I started the go around but neglected to command flaps 15. The captain failed to say positive rate and at this point with my head still trying to wrap myself around what the heck had just transpired I failed to 'fly the airplane' properly; better said; I got behind the airplane. Finally the captain call positive rate and I said gear up; flaps 15 and now I'm approaching 3;000' too fast. We had pax on board so in an effort to not float them in their seats; I cut power and started pushing over gently. I should have been more aggressive; but we exceeded 3;000' by approximately 250'. ATC advised us to maintain 3;000. The captain is now hollering at me; making it worse. Now my speed is decaying down to approximately ref speed and the captain said; autopilot on. I relaxed pressure assuming this was the case. It was not on!!! So now with speed back under control we are going through 3;000 the other way! The captain is frustrated by this point and says; 'my controls' and I felt at this point it made sense for him to do this; rather than tr to discuss what happened and just make a bad situation worse. I believe we went 200' below 3;000 feet before we got it all straightened out. Once stabilized we asked for and received the ILS approach to 21L. We broke out about 100' above ILS minimums. We were set up for failure because the cloud bases were no where near making a successful circle and I still have no idea why the controller started hollering at us about the approach. We never went below mins; and in fact he started hollering 100' above mins. I wished I had just gone straight to flying the airplane and tuning everything else out; but because this was a very unusual situation I was trying desperately to figure out what was wrong so I didn't kill us. I guess in hind-site I would rather be too high than too low. The only thing I can guess at this point is that perhaps he felt my descent rate was too high? I believe were in the descent at about 1;100' per minute; prior to leveling off.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Fractional turbojet flight crew reported while on final approach the Tower frantically called to 'CHECK ALTITUDE'; which set the crew up for a chain of events that led to a go-around.

Narrative: I can honestly say that this is the first time in years that this was NOT a fatigue related issue. We were given the VOR DME-D approach; circle to land. The weather was reported at 700' overcast. We were vectored inside of; to the east of JUDYY at 3000'. Cleared for the approach; we were just approaching LIPPY; descending just above 2;600'. I was fully configured and on speed; with autopilot engaged. As we approached 1700' the tower with alarm in his voice stated; Aircraft X check your altitude immediately! Something to the effect of level off or climb and he said it 3 times. I was totally freaked out. My Adrenalin shot through the roof. This set me up for a chain of events. I believe it totally flustered the Pilot in Command (PIC) as he stammered on the radio as our minds were racing about what the hell just went wrong. I glanced at my Ipad and verified we were good for 1600'; kicked the autopilot off in preparation for a go around. I was very confused for a period of time. It was clear we were not going to see the airport and I hit the go around button and at about the same time tower asked incredulously did we not see the airport as we were approaching the airport. He told us to climb to 3;000' Runway heading. I started the go around but neglected to command flaps 15. The captain failed to say positive rate and at this point with my head still trying to wrap myself around what the heck had just transpired I failed to 'FLY THE AIRPLANE' properly; better said; I got behind the airplane. Finally the captain call positive rate and I said gear up; flaps 15 and now I'm approaching 3;000' too fast. We had pax on board so in an effort to not float them in their seats; I cut power and started pushing over gently. I should have been more aggressive; but we exceeded 3;000' by approximately 250'. ATC advised us to maintain 3;000. The captain is now hollering at me; making it worse. Now my speed is decaying down to approximately ref speed and the captain said; autopilot on. I relaxed pressure assuming this was the case. It was NOT ON!!! So now with speed back under control we are going through 3;000 the other way! The captain is frustrated by this point and says; 'my controls' and I felt at this point it made sense for him to do this; rather than tr to discuss what happened and just make a bad situation worse. I believe we went 200' below 3;000 feet before we got it all straightened out. Once stabilized we asked for and received the ILS approach to 21L. We broke out about 100' above ILS minimums. We were set up for failure because the cloud bases were no where near making a successful circle and I still have no idea why the controller started hollering at us about the approach. We never went below mins; and in fact he started hollering 100' above mins. I wished I had just gone straight to flying the airplane and tuning everything else out; but because this was a very unusual situation I was trying desperately to figure out what was wrong so I didn't kill us. I guess in hind-site I would rather be too high than too low. The only thing I can guess at this point is that perhaps he felt my descent rate was too high? I believe were in the descent at about 1;100' per minute; prior to leveling off.

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.