Originally Posted by
Brother
It doesn't add anything material here but it does illustrate the difficulty of assessing terrain on a weather radar, even if its your primary means.
Seen the statement before in this tread about the wheather radar.
Newer used a Wx-only radar, but I have used and am using Wx+SAR-radars( including Primus 701A wich I think is used in the S92 SAR?)
In my opinion these radars will detect and show small islands and rock regardless of mode and that they are safe and for awoiding terrain when flying over sea. Of course, as with all equipment, you need to be trained with to use it and I think we can safely assume that this crew was trained.
Earlier days of SAR only had the SAR/Wx-radar to rely on, combined with paper maps/sea carts for close-to-land operations, at least where I come from. In my world the radar picture superseeds moving map if seing ground/osbtacle on the radar( of course you should use all system that adds on SA).
I would absolutely think that the radar could be trusted, and that the radar should have been one of the first slice of the swiss cheese. The EGPWS should be one of the last. Said to see that it did not do the work this time.