Great advice. As tragic as this incident is... I have used it as a learning tool for my instrument students. Never accept a clearnace or any instruction from ATC without verifying with your approach plate, or is the case of holding, that you have enough fuel to maintain legality for the amount of time they want you to hold for. This just sucks all around though. Bad day for ATC and for the pilots.
All that aside, I very commonly get vectors at altitudes to join an approach lower than any safe altitude on the chart. I get arcs at lower altitudes than the minimum altitude on the arc is etc, so if a controller gives me an altitude, especially if I'm unfamiliar with the area, I have to assume it's safe. I don't know what the MVA is, those are not published.
Do you query the controller about the lower altitude assignment?
Sometimes. I guess it depends. Do you query a controller ever time he gives you a lower altitude? I doubt it.
I query anyte I get something that doesn't jive with my mental picture of what should be happening.
When flying IFR I spend more time on the VFR sectional than most and with the iPad that's really easy to do. Not saying I was smarter than the crew but had someone looked at the sectional an alarm would have gone off.
As an ATC'er I've seen IAF minimum altitudes 11,000 feet higher than the MVA.
AMF?
Assume there is a policy against carrying your own?
Heh...hehehehehe...heh...give us a year.
Yep
Good approach charts have the pertinent terrain depicted on them, too, so it's a non-issue.No, but there's certainly a policy against using it for navigation.
I don't really see much use for a sectional with the appropriate approach plates, however. Not bad for situational awareness, but certainly safe to operate IFR without them. VFR charts outside the US may be nonexistent or inaccurate, anyway.