Torquetalk - but an unlit helipad at night without NVG is hardly any different to a take off in fog - you still can't see where you are going and need to be fully on instruments from the start of the departure.
Using the search light they should have been able to spot the pad up to a sensible TDP. And don’t forget they had those golf cart lights, no doubt with oil drums in the back for redundancy. But agree that from TDP that was an instrument dep.
Even the basic elements of a AW139 vertical take-off should have worked out, darkness or not, fog or not. Appropriate power, appropriate attitudes were all that were needed. If you are going to do a lot of stuff In haste and ignore a few rules along the way, no need to throw the book out of the window...