JP,
I am rather bemused at your reluctance to satisfy my curiosity here when the questions I pose are rather straight forward and quite simple to answer.
All I am asking you to consider is that based on your experiences with entry in to IMC and the supposition that the weather was a major factor in the Chinook crash is the verdict reached in this case correct ?
I cannot answer for you but, as I previously stated, on the occasions that unplanned entry into IMC has happened with me on board we never once considered ourselves grossly negligent. We did however think we had f@cked up by pushing on too far but invariably task needs dictated that we try our utmost to get the job done.
When you operate in the SH world using weather limits of 100' cloud base and 1k's vis it comes as no big surprise that when rattling along at 140 kts things can change pretty damn quick and I would be very surprised if you could find an SH or TAC AT or fast jet pilot past or present who has not found themselves in an unplanned IMC scenario at sometime in their flying career.
That is why I am asking you to consider, based on your experiences with IMC if you still think this verdict is correct.
Cheers
SFFP