Had they been on an IFR flight plan and alternated the squawk between 7600 and 7700 chances are a controller would have been alerted to their predicament and an escort aircraft dispatched.
With suspect weather and low cloud bases especially in a single it is normal to check where good weather lies even if its 90 degrees off course I may have expected this from a new pilot green behind the ears but not from two experienced pilots with awards and commendations for their achievements in safety.
Yes we are none of us perfect and all mess up but this was something else!
While they had power it would also have helped to have explained to the controller that they had lost a generator but they decided to plod on for three hours. Three hours they could have diverted to good VMC conditions with the help of the controller.
Adam however you try to paint this it is an example of shocking airmanship no more no less even the blind descent before the crash.
You say there was no icing forecast. The fact that they landed on standing snow and the fact that there was cloud 10000 feet thick would indicate that the cloud more than likely would contain ice!!
You also state that actuals and TAFs gave nothing worse than 1000 feet cloud was that the destination airport? What was given enroute as it very rare to get a cloudbase of less than 100 feet when its forecast at no worse than 1000 feet.
If this happened a long time ago and was a lesson learnt which helped them towards their quest for safety??? but if not so long ago not a good advert!
Pace
Last edited by Pace; 5th July 2012 at 18:10.