I don't think the Kuala Lampur event was so much not knowing how much distance to the airpport as it was misunderstanding the descent clearance. The controller said "descend 2 400" and the crew heard "descend to 400". TO be sure there were many other factors involved (confusion as to which NDBs to use for what, by whom, & where, not having the apporach properly briefed, and ignoring eight GPWS warnings), but the most significant, IMHO, was the descent altitude.