caz:
Moreover, were they not over land when they selected the waypoint change?
OK, this is getting weird! In over 6700 posts this has never been suggested before
AFAIK. No, caz, they were not. Of course your case would be greatly advanced if they were because such a scenario would put them much closer at WP change to the crash site and to the cloud and mist that surrounded it, but they were not. They were out over the sea, where the only eye witness has them VMC and with the shoreline of the Mull visible.
We have also been told by the BBC that:
The Ministry of Defence said the helicopter was airworthy.
No they did not, well not to my knowledge anyway. Such a statement would belie belief, given what we now know about the state of the Chinook HC2 at RTS.
So what is going on here? Are we rewriting history a la the USSR? I hope that none of this hogwash is being put to his Lordship, or are these examples of "new evidence" that the MOD does approve of?