Fron "Now Solo", Jennifer Murray's account of her flight round the world.....
"I reminded myself that I had already coped with more testing situations than your average pilot ever faces: tropical storms, sand-laden air, severe turbulence, and a series of mechanical problems like the failed magnetos. Still, I had not had the pleasure of a full-on white-out. I was going to have to wait a few days for the chance of that experience". (Page105, while flying through Northern Russia)
I tried to find anything about the white-out, but it's late, and a while since I read the book, and I can't find it.
Certainly, on the face of it, wearing T-shirts in Antarctica and trying to land in a white-out don't sound exactly sensible, to say the least! But journalists aren't renowned for their accuracy, so let's not judge till we have the complete facts of what happened.