flipster
Re your post #5763
Very nice photographs - but as they were not taken on 2nd June 1994 they are indicative but not strictly relevant. What is relevant is the Finding of the Investigating Board contained at para 16e of their report that "The weather was suitable for the flight but would have required flight in accordance with IFR in the vicinity of the Mull of Kintyre".
As that Finding was made by experienced Chinook Pilots in respect of exactly the same forecast as the Pilots of ZD576 had received; it is clear that they should, once clear of the North Antrim coast, have climbed to a suitable level at or above Safety Altitude until they were unequivocally certain that the weather on the Mull and in the surrounding area was suitable for low level VFR flight. "Suck it and see" at low level was not an acceptable option.
The following is an extract from a letter written by Sqn Ldr DG Kinch DFM (a very experienced Maritime Patrol Aircraft Captain and Examiner who was awarded the Pike Trophy by the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators in 1992) to the Editor of the Daily Telegraph which was published 13th December 2000.
"In light winds and high relative humidity, layers of fog and low cloud form adjacent to the Mull to obscure the high ground completely. There are occasions when a relatively calm sea and a grey sky of similar hue merge, so that in otherwise good visibility a Pilot flying in accordance with VFR may be unaware he is about to enter a fog bank".
Finally, the following is a quote from an article by the Aviation Historian Arthur Helsby:-
"For some time now the coastline of Kintyre, and in particular the area around the Mull, has been known to pilots as a dangerous area to fly at low level because of the freak weather conditions that frequently affect the coastline. The first recorded military air accident on the Mull was in 1941 when an Armstrong Whitworth Whitley from 502 Sqn crashed on the west slope of Beinn na Lice. Since then there have been nineteen recorded air accidents in the vicinity of the Mull and over a hundred and twenty lives have been lost in this remote corner of Scotland."