I know a guy who knows the estate workers who were first on the scene. So this is 3rd hand and not a statement of fact but more of rumor. They say it DID hit the trees first so it would seem it was CFIT after all... I still hold that the impact was mostly vertical so the aircraft has to have climbed at least 100ft after hitting the trees (and I know SSD categorically disagrees with this and i respect his take on it! We are agreeing to disagree!) in order to come down the way it has in the field but I have bored everyone with that too much already.
I looked up the 'quarterback' phrase on Google and this is what it told me:
Monday morning quarterback. a person who criticizes the actions or decisions of others after the fact, using hindsight to assess situations and specify alternative solutions.
I was a bit put out initially (and I suspect it wasn't meant as a compliment in this case) but then I thought - too right! We are a small band us aviators and if we are not looking to assess what goes wrong and 'specify alternative solutions' then we are arrogant and ignorant and likely to end up in a mess sooner or later. This is precisely why the AAIB look into these things! In 'sport' I can see how this phrase is meant in a negative light but when it is life or death we all want to help each other to fly again another day and should all be looking to better our skills/knowledge/understanding as a large part of our aviation ethos/mindset. Personally I welcome people seeking to do things better than me and not repeating the mistakes I make!
I am taking particular interest in this case as the collision was 4.4miles from the airfield I fly and run my business from, in an aircraft I have a couple of variants of in my business and they were flying to and from airfields I regularly do too. This couldn't be more 'on my doorstep'. I do not seek to 'criticize' but to understand and learn from this tragedy and do my utmost to ensure it never happens to me, my passengers or anyone else I know and/or fly with.
The 'hindsight' in the phrase definition gets my hackles up though! We have another name for 'hindsight' in aviation and it is called 'airmanship'. If this was CFIT then avoiding it wasn't hindsight - it was airmanship. It reminds me of when our 152 was landed here once with a 15kt tailwind straight up the 575meter grass runway. It didn't touchdown until gone halfway and the end result was a predictable off runway excursion with prop strike and bent wingtip. When I got to the other end to talk to the pilot (it was being dropped in for maintenance) I asked him in no-uncertain terms why the fruit he had decided to land with a 15kt tailwind. His response was 'its all very well saying that now with hindsight'!!! HINDSIGHT? said I (yes, probably yelling by this point) - THERE IS A WINDSOCK RIGHT THERE!!!! ITS CALLED AIRMANSHIP NOT HINDSIGHT! In this developed age of light aviation what causes accidents is nearly never hindsight but foresight that is lacking. So other than 'criticize' and 'hindsight', I'm happy to wear the 'Monday Morning Quarterback' phrase!