DublinPilot
Either the weather was suitable for a SVFR departure or not. Having then decided the weather had deteriorated to below SVFR limits ATC should have checked whether the pilot was instrument qualified. If he responded in the negative then they would have had an emergency situation on their hands.
To recommend the pilot returns into sub SVFR weather without then giving an IFR clearance and subsequent vectors to the ILS would be a nonsense.
If the conditions were SVFR then why ask him to return? If they were sub SVFR ATC had no rights to request a non IR pilot to land in sub SVFR conditions.
Had the pilot been uncomfortable with the weather and requested a return then ATC should have dealt with the situation as an emergency and dealt with it accordingly.
Sometimes presumptions are made by ATC by the fact that the pilot does not sound in control of the situation or does not respond in a clear way leading ATC to believe that the pilot is loosing the plot.
The keyword had to be clarity in communications between ATC and the pilot and on the pilots side that he appears to be in command of himself and his aircraft.
I have heard communications in bad weather between ATC and a pilot on a number of occasions where the pilot does not respond or responds in a vague uncertain way which is enough to set alarm bells ringing with ATC that a situation is developing which is out of the pilots ability.
Pace