so much being said about this
does anyone know the wx conditions at the time of the crash...complete loss of comm does, as stated above, require a plane to maintain VMC, land as soon as practicable.
I imagine brazillia has a nice airport and if LEGACY WAS truly out of touch for an hour, it might have been an option.
as far as expected altitudes, until we actually have a copy of the clearance we simply don't know if the legacy was told to expect a different altitude crossing a certain fix...HOWEVER if this was part of the clearance it factors into the equation. It will also be of interest whether the LEGACy crew questioned the wrong altitude for direction of flight.