CHINOOK
Brian Dixon, Yes, I survive, thankyou! As you know, I am very reluctant to contribute to yet another round in this long discussion, but the book to which I referred does at least offer an answer to something that had puzzled me all along about this tragedy. It is this; we are talking about a highly experienced and capable crew, and it is inconceivable that they would have pressed on at low level and high speed so close to that coast UNLESS they could see at least something ahead of them (agreed?). So what went wrong at that stage?
It is suggested that what they thought they saw was the lighthouse complex and the rock pinnacles below it. What they actually saw, because they were so far to the right of track, was the fog signal complex with its (very similar) rock complex below. So they thought that they could cruise climb above the hills behind the lighthouse, but unfortunately they actually faced the much higher high ground behind the fog signal complex.
Of course, there is no evidence from cockpit recorders to confirm this, but the whole supposition is in any case irrelevant because they should not have been at low level and high speed heading towards that coast in those weather conditions. That was the negligence, not the events that then followed - such as misreading the visual clues on the coast.
Meanwhile, read the book. Regards JP.