Peter wrote:


Think of all those airliners that flew into mountains, killing
everybody on board. You can bet that - within the areas contained in
the G496 terrain database - every one of those accidents would have
been avoided. All of them involved a "very simple" case of loss of SA.


Today they have EGPWS, which is a whole lot better than a Garmin handheld.

Having said that, I know of at least one airline CFIT that would have
been avoided with a Garmin 296/496, that is the TWA crash 21 miles NW of
IAD in 1974.

But, the bulk of airline CFITs were well inside the FAF and the 296/496
is just not nearly good enough for the resolution required close in.
Keep in mind that EGPWS in airliners is augmented by radar altimetes,
which become very important inside the FAF.