Good evening Caz,
Further to your good question.
My comments were directed mostly at BBF who has a rather simplistic (look it up Ken) view of rotary ops. By drawing a parallel with a PPL who "banjos" his a/c into the side of a hill he overlooks the background and experience of the Chinook pilots.
We may have differing views, but in my view a "straightforward IMC/VMC" accident is where the pilot has so little SA that he continues on his intended VMC flight path, plunging into cloud disregarding the fact that it may be concealing terrain. I have changed "classic CFIT" from BBFs' previous post, to "straight forward IMC/VMC" purely to highlight the fact that there is a difference.
This may well be your view of what happened at the Mull of Kyntyre, but I think this is unlikely. Infact BBF suggests this is an occurence which happens regularly in the PPL world. I'd be interested in comparing the statistics between catastrophic mechanical failure amongst helicopters with those of "Classic PPL CFIT"
As for the difference, and i'm not for one moment suggesting that it was "controlled" but causes of CFIT can include
- disorientation
- unreliable navaids
- error of judgement
The point is that they are not exclusively VMC/IMC accidents.
This is academic since no one knows, but if let's say you agree with my assessment, in your opinion do any or all of the above bullet points constitute gross negligence?
rgds
SMK