ampan:
This, however, does not save the captain. Once he noted the inconsistency, as he would have done the night before, it was his job to resolve it.
But the point I was making was that roughly 42 pilots (estimate based on 3 flights a month for 14 months after the route was computerised) prior to Collins were given the same inconsistent briefing materials - by your standards all of them should have noted the inconsistency -why single Collins out? This was a systemic failure.
Why go left if you think you’re in the middle of McMurdo Sound with high ground to left and with your F/O recommending a right turn? Answer: Pennies started to drop.
It's all conjecture. While digging up material to try and make sense of this I found an interesting write-up here:
The Briefing Room: Investigate Nov 05, Return to Erebus
in which an alternate (and IMO equally plausible) theory is put forward:
49:30 Collins: We’re twenty six miles north we’ll have to climb out of this. [Sounds puzzled not worried.]
Unidentified : OK
49:33 Cassin: It’s clear on on the right. [In right hand seat, he can still see terrain on right, so he is not yet in full whiteout.]
Collins: Is it?
Cassin: Yep.
49:35 Mulgrew/Moloney: You can see (Ross Island). [Probably Mulgrew. Could not be positively distinguished.]
49:38 Cassin: You’re clear to turn right there’s
Collins: No negative [Sitting on left, Collins has lost sight of terrain on right, so is unwilling to fly to the right. He is in full whiteout to the right]
Cassin: No high ground if you do a one eighty. [Cassin on the right can still see terrain to the right, so he repeats his suggestion.]
49:44 ((Ground proximity warning tone – warning continues until impact))
Which I hope you'll agree is also fair. In this version of events, they simply ran out of time.
Regarding what you call the "military route" chart, I remember reading that overlaying the chart on a map with the false waypoint plotted matched almost exactly. Whether this was an exceptionally unfortunate coincidence, or whether the track had indeed been plotted against the false waypoint we'll probably never know for certain, though I reckon it's pretty academic at this point.