gullibell...
you have amazing insight are you sure you werent onboard or the pilot?
How could the search have taken so long when with all your knowledge you could clearly show them where and what happened...
sorry for the condescending remarks, but please dont jump to conclusions...
I still remember my check flight... with a distinctive pappa smurf looking fellow, who with 20,000hrs+ in country and getting late in his years had me continue well past my comfort zone in IMC... "its ok look i know this area well, this rock here is at 10,200 so just sit at 10,500 she'll be right..."
I climbed to 11,000 just to be safe and skirted wider than he appreciated...
on later inspection of the map the actual spot height was 10,700...
*what we think we know can sometimes get us in the most trouble...
the only time we used gps was using the nearest feature and definately not the "direct to mt" button... as in a valley in imc is defintely a place avoided at all costs...
the report could be very interesting.. hope it does some good for sop's and limits future occurances... interesting to note how many fligths are canned straight away due to ash, and understood by management as a significant issue but not so for weather...