I too agree with Bose , he has it spot on . It is an horredous tragedy and I feel greatly for the family . It is due to this widely held emotion that most people refuse to say exactly how it is . Bose X has said it with the caveat that he is a dispassionate and neutral outsider looking in. What he says makes sense . It is a crying shame what happended but it happened for many varying H,P and L factors , but unfortunately with no gun present in the cockpit the decision to go and decision to continue was made by two people and not three or four as intimated . The CFI did not force anyone to go , the crass controller did not force anyone to go , and Im pretty sure neither of the pilots forced the other into anything . What I can not believe is that either pilot did not talk at length with other and the decision to carry on would have been made in concert and not as a unilateral decision. I think common sense has to prevail with the P1 situation , the flight was being made by the younger and the lesser experienced pilot , the other pilot went as "back up" if you will. I cannot believe that either of the pilots just sat there and allowed the other to fly the aircraft into the sea. I would like to think that the Cross Cockpit authority gradient was a thing of the past .It is covered in detail in both PPL and ATPL syllabuses .
The other factor to consider is if the wx was as stated in the above post as 28 bkn 200 then (I dont have the plates to hand) but this would have been a go around for an Ir pilot or IMC let alone a PPL .
If the CFI in question is to be held accountable for for this then as a CFI would you sign out a PPL for solo hire of the aircraft for a flight knowing that if he decided to make a bad decision on his return that you would be held accountable ????? I personally would find it very hard to sign people off for even a qual x country .
Holding a PPL assumes that a person has the training , knowledge and decsion making ability to decide what is and isnt safe . This return flight was clearly never going to be safe , the wx and condition of the aircraft were there for both pilot to see .I fail to see how the end result can be the respoinsibilty of someone 200 odd miles away , who even if consulted may well have said well heres the wx make your own mind up .
May they RIP