FLY 7, I can concur with your source of information. I happened to be not far from the accident site (fortunately surfing rather than flying) and the cloud did seem to just descent in a very short period of time. One minute there was good vis, the next you could not see the hill tops and the next you could hardly see across the car park. A grim day for many reasons.
As for the debate around the 5hrs of PPL IR 'training'. I can admit to having been foolish shortly after passing my test and found myself with heavily reduced vis (again by the coast but more from going into a wall of clag rather than it coming down on me from above) but managed to remember enough to execute a smart 180 and popped straight out again. It scared the cr@p out of me but things would have been far worse if I had not had that training.
Did the training give me a false sense of ability ? - yes
Would I rather not have had it ? - no
Should simulated precautionary land-outs be taught ? - yes (but how does this fit into the UK restriction regarding training at licensed airfields only and does every training establishment have a friendly farmer nearby ?)
TB