given what he knows about whiteout
We have no idea what he may have known about whiteout. The crews weren't briefed on it, as pointed out by Chippindale.
ampan deems the fact that he flew around Wigram and made a trip to McMurdo made him full bottle. As
compressor stall points out, theory doesn't cut it, you have to see it to fully understand.
Even making
prospectors beloved airline descent wouldn't remove the possibility of a crew experiencing full blown whiteout, as Chippindale points out.
Once again, must comment on the airline ethos vis–à–vis "Normalisation of Deviance". Americans reported observing flights operating in and out of cloud while reporting they were VMC. As I have said previously, the airline on these flights was an accident looking for a place to happen.