glendalegoon:
nd the big daddy, the TWA flight near DULLES . Aterptster knows that one.
Indeed I do. It caused me a year of heartburn.
Except for TWA 514 and Palm Springs, ATC screwed the pooch then the pilot or pilots did not have adequate terrain awareness. Same for Dillingham, the clearance violates the ATC handbook so far as I have understood it for many years.
But, when being vectored on one of the south to north ILS's at SLC, especially from the east, no pilot can fine tune his terrain awareness to be aware of whether he is safe being given one lower altitude after another in short order. I flew the 727 often from Denver to SLC after dark. Dark is dark, stormy or not. The equipment in those 727s was primitive compared to what the airline folks have today. TAWS and TCAS has made saves we will never know about.