bast0n:
Ploughing on - thumb in bum - in worsening weather/vis/snow/turbulence et all relying on the dodgy black boxes that the crew knew about does not seem to me to be a sensible course of action
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Well of course you are quite right, indeed you are so right as to be more than quite right but utterly and totally right! Congratulations for encapsulating the very essence of good airmanship so succinctly. Is the above quote by chance one of the "Rules of Airmanship" quoted by JP, or merely stating the blindingly obvious?
What on earth has it to do with the price of fish? The implication is that the pilots did the very thing that you feel not to be sensible, which of course would be an act of Gross Negligence and agrees entirely with the RO's finding. If that is indeed what you are saying, I find your oft repeated assurance that the pilots were not negligent but were in error as to be somewhat disingenuous. They may well have been in error, I think that is a possibility that all acknowledge. They may just as equally have acted in a completely exemplary fashion to the very end but were helpless in avoiding the accident that both would know confronted them. We just don't know. Well most of us just don't know. Some of course know that they would never have found themselves in that latter situation, thanks to their superior knowledge, experience and proficiency. Others merely think, "There but for the Grace of God...".