I have to take issue with the " ex-military not allowed to carry pax" bit. I used to fly for a company that regularly supplied ( and flew) 205's and 212's for the firefighting season in Spain and France and we weren't the only ones. All the helicopters (that I know of and saw) were civil and JAA/JAR TP3 category. There were a number of incidents (Spain) most of which were due to 'hot/high/overloaded' and 'not looking out of the window' reasons after they were eventually handed over to the operating crews. I just hope that the 212 involved wasn't one of them, I also hope it eventually received a little more help than they are demonstrating in the photo opportunity
