BOAC
I agree, picking your way throught the ITCZ is done daily. But I think it is clear that they went through a cell, I doubt if the pitots would have iced up by flying through the rest of the stuff. My question is why did they choose not to deviate a long way away from a cell? This may have been discussed before and I appologise if it is old ground. My comment is that IMO the Captain should have been there. Putting it another way, it would not have been detrimental to the situation if he had been, so I cannot understand the view that he need not have been there.
There will be lessons learned from this tragedy and I guess after a decent time interval it will be used in CRM classes. I just hope the lessons will be remembered.