Originally Posted by
DeltaV
You're all pretty hard on the guy but I wonder what I would think in a similar position. There I am believing in my instruments and my navigation when someone on the ground tells me it's all wrong. Who am I going to believe?
Some years ago passing a MATZ VFR I was given two consecutive steers pretty much into the nearest bank of cloud. The person on the ground may be doing their best but they're not up there.
If the issue was 'No mama, I can not accept that heading due to weather', or 'Am I cleared for the localiser?' or 'Negative there is high ground ahead on that vector', your point would have some merit. After all, ATC does not have the same view of weather as you do and they have been known to forget people on headings (rarely - but it has happened). After the first exchange of
'you are not going where I think I asked you to go',
'Really, my instruments show I am going to XXX',
'Well my radar plot shows you heading 30 degrees right of that track'
it is blindingly obvious there is an issue of some sort in the airplane (like wrong waypoint entered, a miss set DI, generalised incompetence, etc.) and the pilot is just being thick on continuing to deny the issue.