JP,
Could you humor me and tell me what I should read into your post and a previous post as I am more than a little confused.
You said in answer to Daavar
"But in this particular case the crew were well outside the rules of sound airmanship in pressing on in those conditions. If they had been on any kind of emergency mission, as I am sure many of our gallant Helo crews will testify (and no-one admires their skill and dedication more than I do), then, yes, risks must be taken. But this was a simple VIP transit flight; no risk of any kind could possibly be justified."
Which justifies, in your mind the award of the gross negligence finding in this case.
You then go on to reply to my earlier question
"My inadvertence; notably a couple of miles off the Sicilian coast in marginal conditions that got progressively worse. I had not intended to enter IMC when I set out."
I have no idea what type of sortie you were on with regards to the above but, and I am making an assumption here always dangerous I know, if you do not regard your incident as an act of gross negligence, which was my original question then how, bearing in mind the similarities do you categorically state these guys are guilty as charged
Could you also tell me how you think the Chinook went IMC if it was not inadvertently.