Begerie1:
Which is why I agree so strongly with A Squared's post 976 in my post 977. Regardless of whether one is flying in radar or non-radar airspace the pilot MUST always be aware of the MSAs and the location of the terrain.
When I have time later in the week I'll post one of FAA's convoluted MVA charts for a mountain area airport. It is not possible for a pilot to double check ATC altitude assignments in such cases. The big boys have TAWS, which is probably making saves we never hear about.
It would, however, been easy enough for the BE1900 crew to catch what I will continue to call ATC's huge screw up. Sadly, they didn't use the tools they had, particularly the minimum altitude for the holding pattern.