Seems we are presuming that there is no weather reporting at Blacksod - when I asked this some time ago no-one responded. Given that this is one of the few refuelling points on the north west coast and the presumably frequent poor weather, this is surely a major omission, the modest cost of which must be justified in the future. Furthermore, does anyone know if there was any ground to air RT at Blacksod? It's hard to believe a simple hand held receiver was not in use, but there again I have seen no reports of comms here.
And then we come to the critical issue of navigation. Given that there is a significant chance that this aircraft was not where its crew thought it was, I am astonished to gather from some posts that there is a possibility this S92 did not have a moving map display in the cockpit? Is this really the case? It seems incredible if so that a $20m aircraft can have less such kit than most single engined VFR helis. And such an omission may well be a major contributory factor in this accident.
Last edited by rotorspeed; 21st Mar 2017 at 20:35.