Flight Into Terrain - VFR

Hi Readers: Very recently the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) published a Safety Alert on controlled flight into terrain, citing several prominent fatal aircraft accidents involving VFR and IFR pilots operating under VFR conditions at night, particularly in remote areas.
As noted (ver-batim):
1. In many cases, the pilots were in contact with Air Traffic Control (ATC) at the time of the
accident and receiving radar service.
2. The pilot and Controllers involved all appear to have been unaware that the aircraft was
in danger.
3. Increased altitude awareness and better preflight planning would likely have prevented
all of these accidents.
The Safety Alert continued with 8 points of preflight planning that might have avoided these accidents, among them (paraphrasing):
1. Darkness may eliminate your horizon and render avoidance of high terrain impossible.
2. When receiving radar service, do not depend on ATC to warn of terrain hazards ahead.
3. When issued a heading, along with "maintain VFR", be aware that the heading may not
provide adequate terrain clearance.
4. That ATC software provides only limited prediction and warning of terrain hazards, and
is designed for IFR flight, not VFR, and VFR coverage must be requested by the pilot.
I couldn't agree more with the Safety Alert (although I thought it could have been expanded to include weather), particularly with respect to the aforementioned preflight planning points. I have been discussing these points for some time now on my website.
The fact of the matter is that without surface light reflection below or ahead, complete darkness will be experienced and any mountain ahead will not be seen. This means that the horizon will be lost and continued flight will have to be on instruments. With regard to radar services, these services depend on the Controller's workload - which he is not obligated to provide for VFR flight. With respect to an issued heading, with instructions to "maintain VFR", that heading does not gaurantee terrain clearance - it's still up to the pilot. And, of course, the radar software was designed for IFR flight, not VFR flight.
I recommend that all pilots obtain and read this Safety Alert. I'm sure that NTSB will provide wide distribution of this Alert through their own and FAA channels. Also, pilots can download the Alert on AOPA ONLINE. To those of you who cannot locate the Alert, let me know on www.roberthshaw@sbcglobal.net and I will place the entire Safety Alert on www.Robertsflyers.blogspot.com.
New subject: AOPA ONLINE has an article "When Legal Isn't Safe" by Marc K. Henegar (who today is an Alaska Airlines B-737 Captain). An excellent article regarding pilot experience and "go-no go" decisions. Again, available on AOPA ONLINE.
Thanks for listening. R.S.