Jayteeto
Your reply shows that I am not trying to split hairs.
I do not know at what airspeed an HC2 at reduced weight is practicably flown. Up to 140 knots, and I accept your plus one or two knots, a set of VFR limits applies. Recent posts have given three slightly different versions. At 150 knots, as you say, another set would apply, that is 5.5 kms and a "greater" cloudbase which, despite more than one request from me, no-one has yet been able to quantify.
We are told that SH "routinely" fly in minimal weather conditions and one of the three sets I mentioned was suggested to be 100'/500 metres. I assume, and I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, that "routinely" means in accordance with RAF SH Rules. This can only mean "below 140 knots" airspeed.
If all that is so and if no-one can know what was seen from the flight-deck, and this is my whole point, what factual grounds are there for the claim and thus the verdict, that negligence had occurred by the time the way-point was reached and, by extension, that any subsequent possibilities, FADEC problems, control jams, were irrelevant? Put another way, it is entirely possible that the aircraft could have passed the waypoint, still been within its SH VFR limits and then suffered a malfunction. Doubt must exist. Forgive me if this is rehashing old ground but it seems essential to me to spell it out.