Megan - a far better way to do it would have been simply to do a let down from the NE to a point say 2nm NE of Blacksod. They would have been into wind, so with a G/S of circa 40kts, and around 2nm away from any other land. They would almost certainly have seen Blacksod lighthouse flashing at 300ft and positioned in. It would also been a lot faster and burst less fuel.
And anyhow, how did R118 get into Blacksod? That clearly worked. Does anyone know if that info is buried in the 350 pages of the report? Did R116 crew establish how R118 were planning on approaching? Would have been wise.
Fostex - yes, the slowness of the response to the report of land ahead steer right was dreadful. An immediate action of uncoupling and doing a rapid climbing turn would have unquestionably saved the day. Or even not uncoupling but just doing it, not querying it. How much was tiredness or just inadequate competence from the crew I don't know, but decision making just was not good enough.
I will try and read the report in full.