They were hopelessly lost...They didn't know whether the were VMC or IMC...they were confused....not sure where the NPL was....
I'm sorry... Am I to pre-suppose that each of the above statements should be read in the interrogative and are rhetorical or are you trying to say all of them apply and there was such an almighty "Keystone Cops" drama going on in the front end of the aircraft that, had it not been so tragic we'd all be having a good laugh?
I'll hazard a guess that, despite the dubious history of the region, you reject, out of hand, the possibility that three of the crew, (because it seems the MALM might have been sitting in the jump seat), might have believed they knew exactly where they were* and were led deeper into that illusion by a meterorological anomoly?
Since there are so many unknowns in this situation I believe that a "finding" of "foolish" is, most probably, grossly inaccurate and no more deserved than the existing finding.
*which in real terms was not far from their actual