I think there have been some very pertinent observations from crab, two's in and others about flight planning in this era of electronic tablet navigation. Scrolling around a map on a screen is no substitute for sitting in front of a real map when you're planning a flight.....you just see so much more.
TAF EGOV 290747Z 2909/2918 18020KT 8000 BR OVC006 BECMG 2909/2911
OVC007 TEMPO 2909/2918 3000 RADZ BKN003=
METAR COR EGOV 290950Z 16019KT 8000 BR OVC007 11/10 Q1015
BLACKGRN TEMPO 3000 RADZ BKN003 YLO2=
What I can't understand is this. He got airborne around 10.30, he would have seen the above TAF and METAR for Valley before he got in the aircraft. Why did he think the flight could have been conducted safely in VMC?
I notice he had the weather radar from the Met Office displayed on his ipad......maybe he thought he could dodge the Wx radar returns and remain VMC, but Wx radar from the Met Office shows areas of rain.....it's not a low cloud radar.
Very sad....he even had the autopilot engaged, so when it started looking dicey he could have selected a climb to MSA until over the sea.