My condolences to these pilots and their families.

A pilot and ATC enter into a contract when on an IFR flight plan. ATC
agrees to give clearances that avoid terrain and other aircraft and the
pilot agrees to fly the airplane according to those clearances. A pilot
should monitor his position and inform ATC of an incorrect instruction
if he is aware of it. The pilot can maintain safety by deviating even
if it is in violation of the clearance.

When mistakes are made, and they do occasionally happen, responsibility
should be attached to the parties that made the mistake. The only way
to "make whole" the injured party is through money awards. Sometimes
money isn't necessary, sometimes all that is required is recognition of
the mistake.

There was a fairly high profile case some years ago with a commercial
aircraft in Maryland. ATC cleared him to descend prematurely. On their
own, a sim operation gave the exact same instructions the pilots
received to sim pilot crews. Sixty percent crashed in a similar way as
the real plane. If sixty percent crashed, you could crash too. (most
of the ones that DIDN'T crash were had a crew member from that area who
knew about that mountain).

It it accidents like these that make me reluctant to fly approaches
into unfamiliar airports in mountainous terrain or with nearby tall
antennae towers or other tall obstructions. I have, as a pilot, been
given incorrect ATC instructions or temporarily been forgotten to be
given an important turn to final. As a single pilot, I cannot do both
ATC's job and fly the plane. Nor can I count on being able to recognize
an ATC mistake. It sounds easy to say "unable", but it's not, and it is
even harder to be sure, and I have to be SURE, that it is necessary to
say unable. I know, I've been in that situation.

Keep training, ATC, we pilots need you. We all need to work together on
this. Same goes for us pilots. When mistakes happen we all need to take
a hard look at what happened and figure out how to avoid it in the
future.