Woolf
Of course, you are right. It could have been prevented by a simple AVAD system and some Standard Operating Procedures attached to Rad Alt use. After all, they have been in use on the NS for how long....20 years....no more like 23 I think.
The Gomers have always been a bit slow to catch onto some of this "technology" and at last, its only the oil companies who have started to drive new aircraft acquisitions with improved equipment.
Unfortunately, PHI has had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century. The Chief Pilot and Director of Operations in PHI have had little operational exposure outside of Louisiana.
For example, until 3 years ago, the concept of looking at a graph and calculating a take off weight to give any kind of Cat A en route performance was totally alien. In fact, the attitude was "why do it, why not just load up to max gross and take off like a helicopter?" Obviously, this makes a S76 like a Bell 206.
It was only a large oil company client who insisted that aircraft were operated to the equivalent of PC2 which started to drive some alternative thinking in PHI.
It used to be said that if the throttles weren't on the collective, it couldn't be operated in the GOM!!