So PNVS, you believe that a 150 kt cruise is normal in a Chinook? and that in the event of a run up, the vibration which would undoubtedly follow with the NR sitting above 100%, combined with an outrageous amount of lever to try and contain the NR would not preclude the reading of the instruments.......Bollox! The fadec at that time was not serviceable. We were told to fly on regardless that the TPs had thrown the towel in at Boscombe. Whilst I agree that run ups are not 'normal' let me say that when we got fadec it was supposed to be perfect with continual monitoring to prevent overtemps and the like, well how many overtemps have we had? DOZENS! I personally have had one run up during start and several attempts at overtemp. The issue of wx and icing clearance is a red herring. OK they flew into a cloud covered hill, but if you had any experience of SH ops you would know that the legal wx limits are quite low and that all SH crews are able to operate in ****e wx, especially guys from their flt. Nobody knows exactly what happened on that day, and for that reason we should not have blamed the crew! We may speculate but we will never really know.