Originally Posted by
CBreezy
I'm not saying I'm giving the crew slack. I said they should have known better. I'm just saying the mistake isn't SOLELY their fault.
I understand what you're saying and I respectfully disagree. They knew they were flying a full-up IAP. ATC can't override published altitude restrictions in that situation. What they chose to do did not comply with the IAP they were cleared to fly. That's 100% their responsibility. It's that simple.
If ATC had vectored them into a GPWS alert trying to get them onto a portion of the approach down track, then I would agree the blame should be shared.
The only reason I even threw a single spear in the direction of ATC was because he actually came back and defended the dumba$$ clearance he gave them. If he had acknowledged the altitude limit he provided made no sense and it was a mistake, I'd have nothing to say about him (other than it was a human error that caused confusion).
But we get confused by ATC regularly. We do the same to them. That's why we use the feedback loop and clarify as necessary. The one nice thing about being cleared to proceed direct to an IAF and cleared for the VOR/DME-C is that the communication is done. The restrictions, routings and mins are all there in black and white with no requirement for further communication until we switch to tower. This was a procedural error on the part of this crew who somehow arrived at that point in their career with the mistaken impression that ATC could lower a depicted IAP altitude restriction over VHF. The error is all theirs, IMO.