DozyWannabe,
Another highly articulate and thoughtful summary of the circumstances. We are grateful that you are putting so much effort into this thread.
... only a large dose of luck might have been able to help the crew of TE901 realise their predicament, ...
If ever anybody needed a one-sentence summary, that would have to be it.
You appear to believe that is justification for Collins to believe he was identified and and radar control, is that correct ?
henry crun, you appear to be reading way more into Dozy's words than he has written. Dozy was
speculating on the significance of the XPNDR reply light. If the light happened to be flashing
during those few seconds that Collins was assessing whether he should continue, then it is very likely that the light contributed to his belief that everything was safe.
Just speculation.
You seem to prefer the strictly black or white concept of being positively-identified or NOT, but if you could see inside any aviators mind while he is on the job you would find that his reasoning, rather than resting on a set of black-or-white foundations, rests instead on a large set of foundations that are comprised of shades of grey!
Aviators are human beings after all, and there often isn't time or justification to turn shades-of-grey into black-or-white.
This is the
reasonable view of Collins and his copilot's performance that day. Some here insist their performance should have been robot-like but that is just not reasonable.
There's that word again: reasonable.