Thats exactly my point. All this 'secret' information being alluded to and not talked about. The AIB report was pretty clear on the situation. An intelligent person reading the report and being a pilot can understand that they had the opportunity to divert. They crew showed poor airmanship.
Now if you want to come out provide evidence that they were FORCED into breaking the rules. Making an illegal flight and not making good command decisions then I am sorry but my view stands.
I have no doubt that there was a lot of peer pressure went on, young guy keen to be a commercial pilot, CFI tells him it will all be OK, even arranges for a 'more experienced' pilot to come along to bolster his confidence so thinks it all must be OK because the CFI says so. Off they go, outbound leg is illegal even though with the CFI on board 3 circuits and it would have been legal. They get to Exeter, the first aircraft departs and 'get home itus' kicks in. Marginal weather is known to exist at destination but they still go. Enroute they know weather is marginal but still they carry on. They get to destination weather is crap so they try and let down over the sea because they are unable to do an approach. Controller makes a crass comment. They crash into the sea and die.
All I see as an impartial 3rd party with no emotional involvement is a whole number of poor crew decisions that lead to the incident pit. Poor crew decisions that start with a QUALIFIED pilot not sticking to his guns and saying no, continues with TWO crew, one of whom allegedly very experienced who perform poor pre flight planning and continue onwards with poor inflight management that ultimately leads to their death.
All I see here is a witch hunt, presumably against the CFI who said they should go and some aspect towards the controller that made the crass comments but still a witch hunt. What I do not see is evidence of a gun being pointed at the pilots head to make him go.
If you know different then I am perfectly happy to look at the evidence and reevaluate my position.
I am sorry if I sound harsh, but I have no emotional involvement in this and look at the situation with a dispassionate eye and with a view to learning from others unfortunate mistakes.
If I were in the same situation I would have said no right at the point where I knew the first leg of the flight would have been illegal.