Originally Posted by
3 Holer
What "unforced errors" are you talking about?
It's been done many times before, but sure, allow me to explain again.
To exonerate Collins from responsibility, as Mahon did, it is necessary to believe all of the below
- that his decision to descend around McMurdo was appropriate given he had already been informed conditions were poor.
- that his descent from high altitude through a hole in the cloud in a region known to contain a 13,000' mountain, using only the (assumed) high altitude flight plan to verify his position was justifiable;
- that he was truly continuously in VMC conditions all the way down to and including 1500';
- that the requirement not to descend below 16000' MSA until south of Erebus was in fact not real;
- that he was psychologically tricked by whiteout and "saw" a clear, normal horizon stretching out in front of him all the time up until impact;
- that he maintained appropriate situational awareness in the last stages of flight, in spite of failing to establish VHF comms and several comments that were made from other crew members about High ground/Erebus/don't like this etc.;
- that it was appropriate to descend from 2000' to 1500' when good conditions were not apparent at 2000'.
I personally reject every one of the above points. Each one of them represents a poor choice Collins made, and not one was forced on him by the airline, the passengers, normalisation of deviance, destroying documents, or Swiss cheese.