Frankly, it never ceases to amaze me how people can be so bloody stupid - yes, sometimes you get caught out by the weather, yes there are pressures to get the job done, yes we are human and make mistakes - BUT, that flight at low level in an obstruction rich environment in such poor weather was STUPID - plain and simple.
If you go down then slow down - I have hovertaxied in cloud and fog to get a job done and gone under and over wires - it can be done safely if you do it slowly and know when to say NO.
Couldn't agree more.
Cultures get created (Kobe Bryant crash being another case in point) where safety is a box ticking exercise, that justifies tackling any flight no matter what.
All the fellow cowboys out there can then find plenty of reasons why it wasn't the pilot's fault and shrug their shoulders.
That's why we will keep getting statistics, there are just so many that will read this and be thinking I've done worse, or I would have succeeded.
The only saving grace here is that no one else got to pay for such stupidity, apart from the insurer, who I can only hope repudiates the claim.