FFS
Absolutely no US laws or regulations were broken. This is no different than skydiving. The helicopter and jumper were, judged by the video, a perfectly safe distance from other people when the jumper jumped or if the engine quit. Any investigation by the FAA, if they even bother to do anything at all, will be quick, pointless, and result in no action (unless they turn up some other nonsense like an expired medical, not enough flotation devices, etc.).
You can argue about the wisdom of this event, but you can also make the same argument about skydiving, scuba diving, motorcycle riding, a hundred other things or, <shudder> actually leaving the ground in an aircraft <the horror>.
What should be happening is that they should be getting a court order that requires these fearful haters to stay in their homes, pad every sharp corner in them with bubble wrap, and require them to crawl from room to room lest they accidentally trip and fall!
Listen up you fearful haters: I am NOT YOU. DO NOT LEGISLATE RESTRICTIONS MY BEHAVIOR BASED ON YOUR FEARS.
Oh, and super-expert rescue swimmer dude: every operation in life does not have to be done to military standards. Sport skydiving methods and standards are different. Sport SCUBA diving methods and standards are different. Piloting methods and standards are different. And if they make a regular thing out of civilian swimmer delivery, no doubt those methods and standards will be different, too.
The tour industry better start pushing back HARD in Hawaii or they are going to be out of an industry fast. The voters, primarily comprised of fearful haters, outnumber them by a huge margin. Better start taking out some advertising, generating news interviews, explaining realities and telling these people to get a life, or your business life is going to end.
Sorry, this sh*t just sets me off big time.
