You are missing the main point.. The weather was way below the minimums laid down for any sort of descent into McMurdo, End of story..
I'm not missing the points made by
ANY of you here. The points I'm trying to make are that both Chippendale's and Mahon's reports contain flaws, neither of the reports appear to consider
ALL of the evidence. They both appear to be politically motivated to an extent.
1. Firstly, if everyone before you breaks the rules and gets away with it, at most all that history does is put your own actions into context when you break the same rules. It does not absolve you of responsibility when things come unstuck.
Agreed, 100%
2. Secondly, no one who had gone before - descended as low as Collins did in the manner he did in the conditions he had.
With respect, how do you know how the other Captains (and crew) descended? Were all of the flights investigated in the detail this one was?