T‘HAT there is a general problem in avoiding high ground has been demonstrated somewhat catastrophically in recent years, but this paper deals with the descent phase of flight in a jet operation, where most of the incidents and accidents to scheduled international services have occurred. My own examination of these incidents and accidents (in some cases somewhat cursory) has led to the conclusion that in stating the problem in terms of ‘the avoidance of high ground’ there is the danger that we will miss the primary problem and indeed mislead the experts who might have little difficulty in providing us all with airborne radar designed for this particular purpose.