..................and the ONLY reason a mountain was in the way was because some one changed the final co-ordinates of the route without telling the crew!
You forgot to add 3 Holer that immediately prior to the flight the crew were given the preflight planning folder contained the strip map with the track going down the route Captain Collins expected. Oh, and the nav department didn't give the required Ops Flash (I think it was called, can't be bothered looking it up right now) signifying that a change had been made to the flight plan.
For the love of Heaven. Even if the Chief of the navigation section himself had walked out to NZP that morning, looked Jim Collins in the eye and told him "I've programmed your aircraft to fly down McMurdo Sound", Collins still would not have been justified in descending in the manner he did in the conditions he had.
I would suggest you go back over the many posts in this forum, the docu/drama that you commend has very little credibility to many who have a good knowledge of what in fact caused this disaster.
I would second that. The Mahon/Vette premise is extremely believable to those with little or no aviation knowledge - and I don't mean that to be nearly as patronising as it sounds. I myself believed it for many years until I a) became a pilot b) studied things deeper and c) took emotion out of the equation.
Two who showed immense fortitude of character and great dignity were the widows of the two pilots
Ann Cassin certainly, but I don't think the same can be said of Maria Collins unfortunately. Her presence in the media, denouncing of Chippindale etc. and relentless drive to "clear her husband's name" while understandable hasn't been particularly dignified, and as I said earlier, is somewhat disrespectful to the families of the other 256.
That's why Justice Peter Mahon maintains his good name and reputation to this day
How can you say this with a straight face? The NZ Court of Appeal and the Privy Council unequivocally denounced him. Sir Geoffrey Palmer, himself no slouch in the legal field, said Mahon "did many great things in his career, but the Erebus report was not one of them".