He'll argue that the crew was duped into accepting such responsibility, Prospector - by the changed co-ordinates and by their ignorance of sector whiteout.
We're both on the same side here, and we both want to establish that Mahon's total exoneration of the crew was wrong. So we have to identify a reasonably clear-cut error.
You can divide the flight into two parts: (1) Above the cloudbase (with hole) at 18000 feet. (2) Below the cloud base.
Below the cloudbase, things get very complicated, with a sector whiteout and the wrong nav track. They should have IDed Beaufort Island, but they were probably extremely busy doing the orbits and dealing with the communication problems. So it's going to be very hard for you and I to pinpoint a clear-cut error that occurred below the cloudbase.
It's very different story above the cloudbase - which is why I have pointed to the decision to descend through the hole without first verifying their position. D. Dingo, try as he might, will not be able to suggest that the crew were duped into making that decision.
So could you give me a hand in dealing with Brian Abraham's argument that they were entitled to descend through the hole VMC, even though they had yet to verify their position?