I almost never comment on pprune and I don’t participate in any “social media” at all, but I would like to forestall speculation about the competence or judgement of the pilot, by clarifying something of his experience.
I had the pleasure of recruiting and training this gentleman for his first commercial flying position, and, a couple of years later, mentoring, training and promoting him to his first multi-crew turboprop command. During his time with us, he flew mostly in the western islands off Scotland, the Faeroes, and Scandinavia, amongst some of the worst weather conditions I personally have flown in, where the winter gusts often exceed double those reported to pertain on the day of this tragic accident – and almost always with a strong cross-wind element.
We had faith in his competence to command our turboprop aircraft, its crew and passengers, and, more importantly, we had faith in his judgement in deciding when pressing on was inappropriate. I feel sure our faith was equalled by that of his later corporate clients (including a famous racing driver - by definition, someone who would recognise, but not tolerate, incompetence in a pilot if he saw it), as well as the international biz-av manufacturer who employed him full-time to demonstrate its new aircraft worldwide to corporate clients.
This is a terrible sad loss of a thoroughly competent, cheerful, ever smiley professional – my heart goes out to his partner and small children, who, although I had not seen him for a number of years, I know he truly adored.
I believe I also worked briefly with the other gentleman involved 20 years ago - also a man of great good cheer and warmth - and I would also like to express my condolences to the bereaved family in this case.