Originally Posted by
skyrangerpro
...But then the corollary of your point is that the pilot knowingly flew a commercial flight and portrayed it as such without the necessary licence which I find extraordinary.
On the contrary, in respect of the circumstances surrounding this sorry operation I suspect it’ll eventually be found to have been quite ordinary.
Originally Posted by
positiverate20
Yes I agree entirely. It's chilling in a way... the old saying, in IMC a VFR pilot has only got 3 minutes to survive. This pilot requested descent to return to VMC.
Which raises the question: how do you fly in VMC over water at night under an overcast out of site of land?
From experience you have absolutely no external references, you cannot see the surface from any height, you cannot see clouds to avoid them, there’s just inky blackness in every direction and you cannot control an aircraft without total reliance on instruments. His descent might have put him clear of cloud but it wouldn’t have put him in VMC.