Many on this thread seem to have been confused by the weather conditions pertaining on the day of the accident. The confusion seems to revolve around the apparent impossibility of a helicopter flying around VMC in close proximity to the "Fog" described by the lighthouse keeper at the crash-site.
I don't really want to start another round of discussion on the subject, but took this photo a year or two ago, whilst flying just off the East coast of Ireland,looking towards the South West (so quite relevant to the Mull of Kintyre, where the same kind of situation frequently occurs).
Notice that it is easy to see the line of the coast where the cloud starts and that even flying 100m away from the edge of the cloud, along the line of the coast, would be perfectly safe, as the cloud edge is so well-defined and the visibility is perfectly OK.
I believe this photo demonstrates, once and for all, that, assuming the crew's intention, having changed the TANS waypoint, was to follow the (easily visible) line of the coast, it would take something to go wrong with the aircraft for them to enter the orographic cloud and crash into the hillside. It also demonstrates how the yachtsman and the lighthouse keeper could have such differing views of the weather.
Let's have no more comments along the lines of "The lighthouse keeper said the hillside was in fog, they crashed into the hillside, were therefore flying IMC and were therefore negligent" - that logic simply doesn't work as even the daftest pilot on the planet would not have deliberately flown into cloud such as that in the photo, when there was so much clear air around in which to remain. I hope this changes a few minds.
