Originally Posted by
ampan
The letters VMC do not sit easily with "very hard to tell the difference between the cloud and the ice".
The problem with that out-of-context clipping from the CVR is that it disregards the two unintelligible words immediately afterwards, as well as the unintelligible words in the previous sentence. Quoted from your post:
0018:11 – Captain: “Clouds come down a bit * * * may not be able to * * McMurdo. Very hard to tell the difference between the cloud and the ice * *”
It's true that your way of reading it is potentially valid, but equally as valid to my mind is the fact that at 16,000ft McMurdo Sound (and yes, McMurdo Station) would be obscured by the overcast below - and at 6,000ft they'd be right in the middle of the cloud and wouldn't be able to see anything (including Erebus). So at that point the only chance they had to follow their original flight plan would be to descend below the overcast, which they could only do with permission from Mac Central. Remember that sector whiteout is caused by refracted sunlight bouncing off the ice and the overcast - not the clouds themselves, which he is directly referring to.
So - on the understanding that this is a wild guess, but nevertheless a valid interpretation - it could be "Clouds come down a bit
over Ross Island may not be able to
visual ID McMurdo. Very hard to tell the difference between the cloud and the ice
at 6,000".
@prospector - If Judge Greene had asked for testimony from the US military, RAAF and RNZAF pilots who went to McMurdo, then he'd have quickly discovered that while it was a relatively unknown thing on the line, it was a very regular occurrence down there.