John Purdey,
Hello again. Could you please clarify something for me?
You say that they had intended to cruise climb to clear ground which they believed to be at 350’. This implies that you think that they would have been happy, at 850’, to clear it by 500’ in IMC and much too close to higher ground for legal flight under IFR. All this time they were depending on their Supertans and altimeter which itself depended on the accuracy of the forecast QNH.
Have correctly understood your theory?
Thanks, P1