Hempy
c_s, what altitude is that photograph taken from
Around 15-20k. I don't remember, and can't be bothered correlating time stamps to tracking data.
the conditions shown in your photo do not have any relevance to the discussion at hand. It shows a mountain, McMurdo etc. Landmarks that Collins never saw.
The conditions on the day were nothing like the pic and that wasn't its intention. The picture was designed to give an appreciation of an oblique view of the area and likely snow and ice cover that on a bad day would tend to white out. Anywhere with no open water will whiteout. That's both McMurdo sound the the ill fated flight track. I can't remember what date this pic was taken, but it's fairly representative of ice cover for November.
I had posted this many years ago and a few weeks back someone asked me to put it up again, and I just found the link by accident.
Without positive reference to anything other than an inertial system that hasn't been updated for hours, would you have descended below the LSALT? When you knew, even on the safe side, that a massive mountain was less than 5 minutes flying time away?
No.
Being unable to avoid a CFIT due to lack of visibility
It's likely that there was plenty of visibility (as defined for aeronautical purposes) at 1500', even straight ahead.
means that the aircraft was NOT in VMC.
Is it still VMC when it gets dark on a clear night?