Clearly everything is black and white to you DFC.....The trouble is in the real world there are a million shades between black and white.
1. They were not on the IAP if they hit a mountain. Perhaps one should ask why they were not on the IAP. Or if they were, why did the IAP fly them into the mountain.
2. Unless the mountain is marked on the GPS and flagged then there is little to be gained.
They failed to go missed at the MAP. It was a VOR DME approach and although we don't know what happened for whatever reason they never went missed. Which meant they hit the mountain 15' below the summit. HAD they had a GPS, it would have been painfully obvious that they had passed the MAP, and if it was more spohisticated with TAWS (which many / most have these days) they would have seen their course ending in a big red splat. Surely even for the most stupidest pilot out there that would start getting the alarm bells ringing.
Oh and for the record, this wasn't some silly little PPL CFIT we're talking about, this person was a JAA ATPL, FAA ATP, CFI, CFII and MEI. "Co-pilot" was ATP.
I have been in a plane (the back of) attempting to intercept an ILS....except there was a nearby VOR dialed in (very similar frequency, 112.4 instead of 114.2 or something like that). HAD we continued and flown a LOC approach (because GS wasn't coming in) we'd have hit the hill the VOR was on. The GPS showed us flying towards the VOR and 2&2 clicked and the situation was "saved".......