Most amusing part of this is all those who find Collins blameless but would never fly his non certified non approved INS wandering letdown.
To all intents and purposes as the inquiry showed when lawyers went after MD and the US DOD, the aircraft shouldn't have been below MSA in those conditions.
IF, and it's a big if, it had been on the track they thought they were on and they descended, they still weren't actually approved to descend "VMC" in those conditions anyway. It's like some of you are saying they got away with breaking the SOPs for that flight before and the should have got away with it again. Flying outbound in the hold using the INS without updating, or Radar, and they still could have hit the western side of Mt Bird instead of Erebus while within INS tolerances.
Lawyers would have said its the manufacturers fault, MD would have shown aircraft not certified for that manoeuvre, Mahon would have hypothesised white out and any professional aviator would still be wondering what they were doing down there.
Guessing location in debatable VMC, at 1500ft, in a relatively featureless barren terrain, at 6 miles a minute, in a widebody jet.
Does anyone remember their first cross country where instructor said "don't look for features outside and try to fit them in on the chart with where you think you are"..........