"In all cases unless the person in question was in receipt of a radar service Im sure his airmanship would be called into question...and whilst he might not have broken any law would you (given the advice from the authorities) possibly consider his actions to be reckless or negligent given that such advice was for a completely different set of actions? Would you have considered that the commander had placed his aircraft in danger?"
So how would a court have seen our IMC / night letdowns to a 50' hover over the sea? Quite a few more dead folk had we not done it.......
"that accident does not show the error of using a DIY approach; it shows the error of not following a procedure correctly. Every year there are umpteen accidents where aircraft have diverged from published procedures that ARE approved."
I totally agree - once you fail to follow any let-down procedure, home grown or not, you are in uncharted territory and "loss of terrain clearance" is what may follow, even if the MAP is carried out correctly.