Just a few musings:
- None of us know what was happening on that aircraft from a video clip; most of you are guessing to support a particular point of view. How do we know the weather hadn't closed in suddenly and they were trying to escape back down the hill?
- Who or what the passengers were/are is irrelevant; mountainsides don't differentiate.
- Do military units need to train for bad weather? Yes. To that extent? Possibly, possibly not - we aren't the crew, we don't know what they were doing or what they auth'd.
- Should crews train/operate beyond their capabilities? No
A lot of speculation, plenty of opinions and an absence of hard facts. I am sure whoever is responsible for the aircraft in question has seen the video and discussed it with the crew - and taken any action they deem necessary.
Feel free to knock chunks out of each other, measure d1cks or waste heartbeats if that's your particular bent.
Edit: One of the few known facts is it wasn't SAR/HEMS so can those two groups of otherwise professional individuals stop with what they would have done, and who's better now?