The manager of the airport, Manfred Kranabetter, who was at Lockhart River when the crash occurred, says that had the pilot contacted ground staff as part of a standard routine they could have told the pilot that a mountain on his intended approach was obscured by cloud.
What an idiotic statement & emotional claptrap. The PIC would still have made the approach, as he's entitled to (his airmanship & behaviour is an entirely different matter). He's only required to get visual at the MDA to land not a hill before the runway. And anyway, how did the met observer on the ground see that the hill was obscured? He must have been visual on the ground with it. A Tower ATC will not warn an approaching aircraft that a hill is obscured, they will shut up & let the pilot fly the approach.