While a comment from ATC to alert the pilot to the track error may have prevented this accident, ATC can not possibly be blamed for this tragedy. If the approach had been into somewhere remote like Coen, this debate would not be relevant. Equally a cross check on the position with a VFR portable GPS might have alterted the pilot to a problem.
IMHO the buck stops squarely with the PIC. Like most aviation accidents, the plugging of any one of a number of "holes in the cheese" would have prevented it.
I did my GPS/RNAV Appr rating with a Trimble GPS, and found it much more difficult to work with than the GNS430 that I now use.
I have gotten into the habit of navigating soley by reference to GPS, but as a result of this accident, I now try wherever possible to cross-reference my GPS position with a ground station or radar position at some point in the flight prior to flying a GPS/RNAV Appr.
The pilot's habit of pulling the circuit breaker on the radio altimeter is curious. I wish I had one, and if I did I would ensure that I used it appropriately where ever possible.
Although apparently not diectly relevant in this case, the fact that the GPS database was not current is also interesting.
Dr