but the intention was always to conduct the entire flight at low level and the aircraft never climbed above a few hundred feet
But that can't be true as they were carrying passengers and no one would fly low level with passengers......or would they....?????
Indeed, the AAIB-calculated aircraft attitude at impact would be relatively extreme for an aircraft flying IMC
Why were they in IMC below the Safety Altitude? On day one of Flying training you are always taught Rule number one of aircraft safety.....If you are IMC then you climb above SALT. They disobeyed rule 1.