Night departures
Night departures with no ambient lighting in the vicinity, no visual cues, no horizon means you are relying on instrumentation and a procedure (power settings, attitude changes) from hover to initial forward acceleration then when a climb is established usually a slight change to pitch followed by close monitoring the instruments by both Pilots not distracted by anybody or anything until a positive rate of climb is established and airspeed is alive. Never easy and never assumed.
Below "min IMC" speed the $64 question is this.....if the aircraft is not certified for instrument flight below a certain speed (because its "behavioral aspects" are usually sloppy at slow speed), and the conditions as described above are applicable, where does that leave the Pilot flying?
This is not to assume anything regards this CFIT accident.
I just pose the question.
Thoughts are with the families and crews of this one.
Night departures without enhanced vision (read usually NVG's) leaves the crew without a key human sensor "enabled/active".....looking into the night. I humbly suggest NVG's would be a big advantage in these departures, as well in an emergency during flight en route.