Originally Posted by
B2N2
...Somebody please correct me and explain it the right way.
This was a recently minted private rotorcraft pilot who, on the face of it, has taken off on a dark night off-airport in his own helicopter with his family on board. My hunch is as soon as he was surrounded in darkness he was instantly overcome by a situation completely outside his proficiency level, panicked and lost control of a serviceable helicopter shortly thereafter. And possibly became inverted or crashed nose first at high speed resulting in the total destruction of the helicopter, and, needlessly, themselves.