Originally Posted by
SandyYoung
He may have been 1000 feet above the highest mountain and experienced a catastrophic mechanical fault or taken ill.
That may well be the case. However, Information regarding the circumstances and looking at past incidents in similar circumstances tells us that the probability of this being due to catastrophic mechanical failure is very, very low (realistically <5%). The fact that it hit barely underneath the summit of that ridge also points in a clear direction.
Professional Pilots stated that they would consider this flight on this route, weather and time of the day challenging even in a much better equipped bigger Helicopter and this coming from Military / SAR Pilots gives me a clear idea what that means for a PPL in a rather small helicopter with limited equipment to deal with such an environment.
Chances are 1 + 1 = 2.