From Chippindale report "Had the crew followed their stated intention to descend on a heading of 180° grid they would have increased their safety margin from the high ground, but without further advice to “McMurdo Centre” the pilot in command reversed the aircraft’s descent track and from 5800 feet the descent to 2000 feet was completed on a heading of 357° grid back toward the cloud covered high ground. This inbound track had a minimum safe altitude of 16000 feet. After reaching 2000 feet the aircraft captain announced he would descend a further 500 feet to obtain a better view below the continuous cloud layer and the first officer supported this by say “Yeah O.K. – probably see further in anyway”.
This was where the obvious error was commenced, turning back onto 357 grid and not relating that to the required MSA for that heading. That is of course after not taking the advice of the Met People on the ground at McMurdo, in my opinion. Which is worth very little, but still interesting to see other folks take on the repercussions of this tragedy.