I've just read this thread for the first time and can't imagine how terrible the pilot must have felt when he heard about the rescuer's death.
In the surf rescue world we use a 50 ft rope attached to the cargo hook in a bin, fitted with 2 clips to attach to the surf crewman and the drowning swimmer. This is much quicker than using a winch in rough surf and is surprisingly fool proof. After pick up, we air taxi back to the beach as low as possible in case the survivor slips out of the harness.
I could not imagine doing this with a 150 ft line, at great heights in case in this type of problem occurs. Surely this is why the winch was invented and with 300 ft cables, there wouldn't be too many occasions when a winch would be impossible.
