Originally Posted by Double Boogey
Are you saying on this particular occasion what they did was safe but just poorly executed or were the conditions inherently unsafe?
Yes, I think this is fair comment. The owner bought the best machine money can buy and hired two experienced IF-rated commercial pilots. The accident report clearly states that he did this in order to be able to depart from his place under all conditions.
Any competent and current IF pilot would have been able to get the take-off right. As we know from the CVR, the pilots were (despite having current IF ratings on paper) neither competent nor confident to do the required IF take-off profile. Instead they behaved like a low time PPL who when inadvertently entering IMC still relies on limited visual clues and doesn't trust his/her instruments.
This one is not about the difficulty of standing up to your boss refusing to do a specific flight that is not safe. This one is about pilots who should not have taken the job in the first place.