CHINOOK
Many thanks M134. The answer is that the known facts show that at around waypoint change, the crew had four choices: slow down and think about it; climb to safety altitude (though I note an earlier comment that the icing layer was against them); turn port along the coasdt; or fly straight ahead. They chose the latter and selected a cruise climb. That rate of climb would have cleared the high ground at the lighthoue, BUT they were over 500 yards to sbd of the intended track, and the cruise climb did not clear that much higher terrain. It is precisely to accomodate any possible positional errors of that kind that we have a regime of safety altitudes. The negligence lay in the fact that the crew pressed on in IMC when all the rules of good airmanship were against them doing so. I devoutly wish that those were not the facts, but they are. Regards John.