34 miles North, 10000ft, no DME lock on, no VHF contact, no radar contact. what would that tell you??
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Prospector
They "thought" that they were 34 miles north because, so far as they were aware, the NAV system indicated it. They thought that they were 34 miles north in the centre of McMurdo Sound because that was where they expected the nav system to take them. I do not beleive that was an unreasonable assumption. And remember that they thought that they were in VMC.
Trying to remain objective, I see errors on all sides. The error in the coordinates inserted into the nav system without advice to the crew was a major one. Likewise, it is difficult to understand the time elapsed between a hard GPWS warning and the request for go-around thrust. Again, maybe the crew had difficulty to understand the warning because, in their opinion, they were no where near high terrain.