Flungdung - I think your language may be inappropriate; it was not
de jure criminal (for the reason that are about to be explored below) although it could have been
de facto foolish (if the report is accurate).
Picking up on the last paragraph of SASless’ post and the thrust of Helmet Fire’s; although I am not intimately familiar with FARs it would appear to me that as this was classed as a Part 91 positioning flight and, in the absence of instructions on the conduct of this type of flight in the Operations Manual or a specific requirement in the OpSpec, compliance with Part 91.155 applies.
My reading of this rule is that, in the basic table, the requirement for Class G airspace when below 1200ft is:
Night, except as provided in 91.155(b).....(visibility of) 3 statute miles……500ft below, 1000ft above, 2000ft horizontal (from clouds).
and, as is the norm with FARs, alleviated for helicopters to be:
(b)(1) Helicopter. A helicopter may be operated clear of clouds if operated at a speed that allows the pilot adequate opportunity to see any air traffic or obstruction in time to avoid a collision.
The interesting thing about this series of rules is that they are - as with FAR 91.119(a) and (b) - in compliance with the ICAO Standard (which permits alleviation from the visibility of 5km down to 1500m for airplanes and below 1500m for helicopters) but, in view of the alleviation
for helicopters of the 500ft rule (FAR 91.119(d)), results in a void of regulation for NVFR (see also the recent thread on the amendment of the ANO). (As with the UK (and other States), the
dome interpretation of the ICAO 500ft rule leads inevitably to the same conclusion.)
As was also stated by SASless, Part 91 does does specify the additional requirement of visual surface lights required by Part 135:
FAR 135.207 VFR: Helicopter surface reference requriements.
No person may operate a helicopter under VFR unless that person has visual surface references or, at night, visual surface light references, sufficient to safely control the helicopter.