"And if the compass that they already said was older was going to fail, how did it happen at that point and not any time during the flight when it would have been noticed?"
Hand-held GPS. Even a modern iPone has apps for pilots that work off of GPS and are very accurate.
But I think that mountain was in that 400 feet broken layer or that 2,000 feet overcast layer. and not visible except for airborne radar detection.
That measurement is the base of the cloud layer from ground elevation, not sea level, and if it was taken by an automated system, the measurement is only for directly above that machine.
I hate automated weather reporting machines, and I think they are a flying safety hazard.
I'm a real believer in an actual person using controllable equipment to measure the conditions, and to actually look out their windows and watch the weather, to formulate those reports.
But that's a whole other subject, and government budgeting wants to reduce labor cost and go to automation, so there's more funds they can waste or embezzle.
The other "What if" would be a 'chase plane", but you'd still have to have a way to throw the plane off course.
If you look closely at those after crash photos, you notice the tail section of the aircraft was in pretty good shape, and someone did survive the crash, but died later in the hospital.
So it's possible someone else might have survived it, in that tail section.
But that really is "grasping for straws".
“So it’s possible someone else might have survived it, in that tail section.”
Possible yes, but a real gamble to make sure the “accident” needed to be assured. The only way I think they could have had time to do their cleanup before anyone arrived would have been a chopper, placed, so they could get out after confirmation of a complete kill or someone on the way to dying like the TS. They were sloppy, though. They could have easily killed her with a rock and been fine. But hey, that’s where the words “good enough for government” could have been used.
rwood