Chugalug2
You wrote in post #
<<They had no illusions though about the Chinook Mk2, and begged for a Mk1 for this task at least. "No, get on with it", was the reply from above. >>
If they had worries about the MK2, it wasn't about handling – the previous day's crew reported that ZD576 had performed very well, smoother than a MK1, etc..- one would have thought they would have liked to have more of a go of it in this respect – they had indeed had serious reservations but at that point it would have been difficult to refuse – there is after all no evidence of control difficulties anyway in the decisive part of the flight.
<<So they did, but at least they took the sensible precaution of replanning the trip for the shortest over-water leg. In that at least they succeeded, for when what they feared happened they were able to make land-fall. >>
Check the maps – there is no difference at all – further, the landfall options on the other route would involve low, level, and clear (weatherwise) ground. What you have written here is absolute nonesense.
<<Unfortunately it was hilly and cloud covered ...>>
And as someone who posted here who was flying in the Antrim Hills area at the time said the weather was “sh**ty” over those hills too – how was this track safer than the flat, low land via waypoint H then B if they had any reservations re the a/c?