While we'll never know the true cause of the accident, I'm fairly certain that the most likely explanation was a visual illusion. I knew the crew well and none of them could remotely be considered risk takers. We know that they were flying at a few hundred feet across the water before the impact at cruising speed and that their SH and SF training would have made them familiar with flight in bad weather and in the technique of "coasting in" to landfall respectively. The SH mantra on encountering bad weather has long been "go down, slow down, turn round, land on". That they hadn't even begun to do the first of these tells me that they were comfiortable with their in-flight conditions. They could easily and legally have descended long before coasting in but chose not to (or were distracted by a malfunction, if you wish to invoke that possibilty). Having flown the route in similar conditions I can vouch for for the fact that the Mull rises unexpeectedly steeply in front of you as you approach from the south. It was covered in its customary veil of cloud at the time of the accident but its shape was probably clearly visible to the crew, who probably opted to skirt the landmass, knowing that they had to remain VMC to make their destination (having no planned icing option available). Things must have unravelled very quickly in the last few seconds and, whatever the cause of this tragedy I cannot concieve that the crew would have, for one second considered their actions risky, otherwise they would have descended sooner. That they didn't even start slowing down as they appoached the coast indicates to me that they were satisfied with their chosen course of action. Most aviators have experienced disorientation or visual illusions (the sloping lake in the training valley in Snowdonia for all you helicopter crews!). There but for the grace of God.....
Rest in peace dear friends, we who knew you never lost the faith.