Prospector who is .. and I say this in all sincerity . .. deeply studied on this subject . . .believes that -
Quote:
The shifting of the waypoint in itself had nothing to do with the cause of the disaster.
- which is a strange statement to make considering primary causal factors.
Prospector is right.
Yes, you could certainly argue the confusion and administration factors surrounding the waypoint shift was an error. Furthermore, if this error hadn't occurred, the accident wouldn't have occurred. But - and I have made this point before - this error occurred in a system that was never designed to prevent an aircraft from crashing into terrain. Whereas the MSA, and VFR rules are very very much systems which are designed for terrain avoidance. And it was these systems that Collins violated.