And here is a video taken near the crash site of the mist forming – please note that it is of limited height from the ground (one of the light house keepers on hearing the Chinook approaching said that it would be alright as it would be flying above the mist - local knowledge):
http://s229.photobucket.com/albums/e...t=DSCF0414.flv
The ground hugging nature of this mist is due to a phenomenon termed “speed up” whereby the layer nearest the ground is squeezed and travels faster than the bulk air mass; (Bernouilli?) the faster the air the lower the pressure the lower the temperature and hey presto the layer nearest the ground reaches its dew point in advance of the bulk air mass.
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These pictures were taken in September in far from ideal conditions for the formation of such mist – an evening in June with the usual prevailing wind blowing would result in a solid blanket of the mist extending for most of the slope but of limited depth. On the day, the orographic cloud was 900 ft and would have extended out a considerable distance before the Mull but they would have been OK beneath it – the problem was not one of flying in bad weather but that the mist (which you knew where it was because it was on the ground) obscured ground detail making visual judgment of range/distance to the Mull very difficult – you would require navigation to keep you away from it and stay in VFR! – and you would want a fixed local reference navaid of some sort if you, for whatever reason, wanted to go in close.[/FONT]