No, there was never any intent to land at Blackrock - why on earth would there be? Blackrock was 2 things - firstly a WP in the company letdown route to get to Blacksod and secondly a bloody great rock on the way to do so. The fact that they were overlaid on a procedure without any clear indication of the threat is the real issue here.
Al-bert - agreed, you and I both know that it would not have happened in a SK letdown because we had a dedicated radar operator rather than an over-tasked co-pilot to stop us bumping into things.
Maybe I wasn't clear on that. I was talking about that APBSS generally, the Approach Blacksod South, I turns out is what that stands for. My point was to suggest that it seems to be a transit route from heliport to heliport at each lighthouse. Eastbound off Blacksod, the arrows going the other way lead to the heliport at Blackrock. Conversely, the route seems to be for a machine that has lifted off Blackrock heliport. Which eliminates the possibility of hitting Black Rock.
There is nothing on this "approach" that takes place east of Black Rock. So the part of the flight we know did go east seems to be some letdown procedure APPS1 at the crew's option, following which they would join into a procedure which is based on a helicopter taking off from Blackrock light and going to Blacksod, likely the normal procedure in servicing Blackrock light, which is unmanned.
Someone, perhaps you Crab, has already pointed out that this seems not to be a real IFR approach. Others have said it seems stupid to base a letdown point around a 300 feet rock. It is. But this chart does not show any procedure east of Black Rock.
Is there a APBR? page in the route guide, some approach for Black Rock? Or is it just the reverse of the Black Sod approach, or what seems like it may be the missed for Blacksod.
It is not unusual that this crew is not familiar with Black Rock. They are an S-92 crew in an aircraft that as I understand cannot use Black Rock heliport. So they have never been out there. They haven't even been to Blacksod for quite a while.
If you know Blackrock is 300 feet high, and you know APBSS is a chart limited to use for helicopters transiting between Blackrock and Blacksod, then you aren't considering it an approach for a machine that doesn't initially lift off Blackrock. Sure, it can be used from Black Rock eastbound, but only if you cross BLKMO at say 1500 and step down going through the other fixes to 200 at wherever makes sense to be at that altitude on the final into Blacksod.
I don't see why a flight needs to go that far out, when a Trans Down to VFR at 200 at say BKSDA works better.