If the route was already preprogrammed into the FMS as a result of previous taskings or appeared as a selectable option...
Hey, someone else has already worked out a routing previously, we'll just follow that. Must be okay, it's stored in the FMS.
Can it really have been as simple as that?
It could have appeared as a simple, safe option to a crew unfamiliar with the area operating in pretty poor weather conditions. Why reinvent the wheel when someone else has apparently already done all the hard work?
Descend to gain sight of the surface over open water, select the route and concentrate on the rest of the mission. An expectation that the route was "safe" because someone must have flown it before, would certainly go a long way to explaining the apparent initial confusion and lack of urgency in changing course in response to the FLIR operator warning of an obstruction ahead.
A land based analogy could easily be drawn with professional lorry drivers blindly following sat nav directions and colliding with low bridges or other hazards when it should be obvious that the route is unsuitable.
Last edited by G0ULI; 1st May 2017 at 01:17.