I have not suggested flying overweight as being the right thing to do. Read the posts...carefully. I said they are not "mortal sins" defined as being those that absolutely result in death and destruction. If you have flown in the mountains at all....you will probably at some time flown at a weight you could not land with on the mountain but is quite safe and legal in the valley on each end of the mountain and for cruise flight at any altitude you can get to.
Thus...since all these self appointed experts that are trying to make this a simple case of a young pilot biting off more than they can chew event....I am suggesting that might not be the case at all.
The body recovery was not complete when all this speculation started....remember.
Immediately it was suggested the poor lady tried to land with more than she could....and no one....not one of you knew what phase of flight the aircraft was in when it crashed.
If the aircraft had an inflight problem that resulted in a forced landing then all of that wonderful clairvoyance so many seem to have.....wrongly describes what happened, and does so quite unfairly in my view.
Don't tell me about the beans in the jar.....until you consider the "beans" spelled "beings" in that helicopter.
If you want to work a performance problem and talk about power margins of an R44 that is cool....but before you apply it to this tragic event....be able to produce an accurate set of numbers for the Weight and Balance of the aircraft, the correct numbers for the climatic conditions that existed at the time of the crash along with the specifics of the landing site to include height of barriers, azimuth of approach, wind speed, direction, and temperature.
We may have our ideas about what happened....but we ought to have some respect for the folks involved....including anyone from the family that might reading this.
Some of you remind me of vultures setting on a fence the way you talk....maybe law school should have been your first choice instead of flight school.