Prospector
How can you say this
My point is, from 16,000ft, Erebus should have stuck out like the proverbials,
when you have never been there in the same condtions that the crew of TE901 experienced. I'll bet the photo you refer to wasn't taken in the same conditions that existed on the day of the fateful flight.
I don't recall what the requirements were for descent below 16,0000 but if I recall correctly the crew believed that they had those requirements. As history now shows they didn't have those requirements, the conditions had deceived them, hence my reference to
Having personally 1. flown into McMurdo sound and 2. flown down south in VMC white outs, I can clearly see how the uneducated failed to see the "massive mountain
One of the problem this crew faced was, they didn't know what they didn't know, when it came to operating in these conditions. The US military require at least one trip down there as an observer before flying down as an operating crew member, these guys had never been there before.
It's easy to be arm chair critics with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight.