I’d just like to throw another view into the ring.
With VFR flight we can imagine the aircraft as being at the centre of a bubble or sterile area, that is, a minimum height above ground or cloud, a minimum height below cloud, and a minimum distance horizontally from cloud or ground. All of that is achieved by estimation with the Mk. 1 Mod. 0 eyeball (the V in VFR). That pre-supposes that you do not need to know where you are since any obstacle, it is assumed, will be seen. Normal obscurations to our vision are caused by such phenomena as smoke, dust, mist, fog, cloud or precipitation. Both the cause and degree of obscuration is easily discernible. That is a pilots real world experience, but there are always exceptions and caveats. The exception and caveat in this case is EXCEPT IN POLAR REGIONS. Mention has been made that other flights were made on gin clear days. Maybe so, but even in such conditions you may still very well fall afoul of the tricks of light and depth perception unique to polar operations. There is good reason the US military, in their wisdom, required crewmembers to have made three familiarisation flights to the ice before embarking on the adventure them selves.
I have worked with a few helicopter pilots who have extensive Antarctic experience and they all find it incomprehensible that a crew with absolutely no experience should be operating down there, let alone trying to drive a jet VFR at a minimum speed of 260 knots. Prior to them (the helo guys) being let loose they were subject to much indoctrination, training (prior to and on the job) and much mentoring.
Given the above, I personally, lay absolutely no blame at the feet of the crew. Captain Collins and his crew were operating within the bounds of their understanding and previous experience with regard to VMC. They were way in over their heads through having no experience and lack of training in polar operations. As Donald Rumsfeld famously said, “You don’t know what you don’t know.” The shame of it all is that a repository of knowledge was readily available just down the street, so to speak, in Christchurch.
But what about landing? And what about going down to 2000 feet when there’s a 13000 foot mountain around? So wouldn't the average commercial pilot, exercising a reasonable amount of care and attention, stay at the safe altitude until his position had been verified
Not trying to be smart ampan, but are you suggesting that a pilot should be checking the co-ordinates that Jeppersen has put in a data base before conducting a GPS approach for example. Guys doing an NPA approach into Queenstown may have their work cut out for them.
A clerk doing the data entry could just as well have made a blue. Any changes to nav data in the general scheme of things is promulgated by a NOTAM, are we to blame the crew for the airline not having procedures in place, or if they did, for not following those procedures, to alert crews of changes to nav data. You don't, if you are an airline jock, do your own water drains, yet it is the captains responsibility (without getting into a debate about the delegation of responsibility).
Fly safe and Blue Skies.