I lay the blame on the captain. Were it not for his appalling series of errors, the co-ordinateswould not have mattered
I agree with you ampan, but the counter argument is that without the appalling failure of the navigation section, the errors Collins made would not have mattered.
To which I reply this.
The navigation department does work of crucial operational importance. But it takes a big leap of imagination to connect a professional failure in the promulgation of the high altitude NAV track to collision with terrain at 1500'. But VFR rules, and MSA rules are basic rules of airmanship and flight, and it takes no imagination whatsoever to understand how violation of those would lead to tragedy.
Hence the biggest professional failure was that of Collins.