Originally Posted by
helonorth
These guys were totally improvising, anyway. I don't think they had much of idea how dangerous what they were doing actually was.
Some people have put this as the root cause. One of the pilots was the aircraft owner's regular corp pilot and the other was a 10K+ rotor pilot and they both were partners in a helicopter flight business. Some reports indicate when the boss called his pilot with the girls emergency, he jumped and called his buddy where they met at the airport and launched at 1AM with no plan except to get there and back at all costs. More like a white knight syndrome attempt than a properly thought out flight that should have worked.