Lyman - I beg to differ. You state the conditions they FLEW INTO as the precipitous start - it was flying INTO the conditions AT ALL that was wrong from the beginning.
If they had diverted, no accident. Quiet different - but I bet you'll argue. You do, you see?
They didn't divert - they flew into the soup you describe. The soup in itself was not a killer - it was the response of the crew and most everything they did from then on that did them in - not the aircraft.