Here's the witness testimony given by Mr Holbrook to the House of Lords' select Committee on 16 October 2001:
"When I saw the Chinook at approximately 6 pm the visibility back toward the cliffs was, again I estimated, about one mile but the visibility towards the Antrim coast and Rathlin was very much better, between three and five miles.
I understand the issue of visibility towards the Mull to be crucial. I have been asked before "Could you distinguish the physical features of the cliffs on the Mull?" To which I answered "No". If, however, I had been asked "Could you distinguish the physical features of the lighthouse?" My answer would have been also "No", but again if I had been asked "Could you distinguish the location of the lighthouse compound?", my answer would have been "Yes". I could not distinguish the lighthouse itself but the building complex and the white fence lower down could be distinguished as a contrasting colour change against the grey/green/brown of the land mass.
I want to make the point, My Lord Chairman, that poor visibility was local to the Mull and even further localised to different altitudes on the Mull. The low cloud, and I really would not call it fog, clung to the contours of the high ground so that the location of the Mull massif itself was in no doubt whatsoever from sea level If I had been asked to speculate on whether the aircraft, which undoubtedly to my personal observation was in an area of better visibility, at the time I saw it could determine without ambiguity where the Mull and its hills were I would answer without any doubt Yes that the low cloud following the contours of the land faithfully would give its location without ambiguity.
Furthermore, if I had been asked to speculate if the crew could see from their vantage point the cliffs, beach and lower perimerter walls of the lighthouse complex I would again answer Yes."
Worth remembering that Mr Holbrook was actually in the vicinity. The BoI, Reviewing Officers, you, nor I, were.
I hope this helps.
Regards,
Brian
"Justice has no expiry date" - John Cook