A simple AVAD which costs little and has been in use for 25 years on the North Sea could have prevented this accident, even if the bug was improperly set, the 100' warning would have sounded.
Sikorsky has now made EGPWS standard in all new aircraft, at least they are adopting a responsible approach to the problem.
Its sad that operators have not used the experience gained by their European ownerhip exercises past and present (ERA - KLM, OLOG - Bristow) to take the good operational equipment and techniques and apply them to their GOM fleets. Lives have been lost because of lessons not learned.
Incorrectly installed or unserviceable CVRs are not unheard of, a recent fatal fixed wing accident in Australia also involved an aircraft with an unserviceable CVR. Maintenance intervals and function checking procedures should be revised. Simply pressing a button and a meter going into the "green" is not enough.
Monthly integrity checks of CVR recordings should be an integral part of Operations and Maintenance QA.
HH