I've been watching for the NTSB to update this accident report. I ferried an R44 from Robinson two weeks after this one and was informed that Robinson had added an additional requirement to their ferry flight rules. They now require that the flight controls be removed from the passenger side if that person is not rated. They may have reason to believe that the non-rated passenger was flying the aircraft at the time of the accident.
Other thoughts:
The preliminary report says that approx 1.2 hours had elapsed between departing KTOA and the accident site 16nm east of Desert Center, 18 nm west of Blythe KBLH, that's a distance of 165 nm.
Hobbs said 5.2 hours, and the ship left Robinson with 4.0. Blythe Metar said the winds were from the south at 8 knots (no tail wind to speak of at the time) with an OAT of 38 C. In the absence of a good tail wind, these guys were traveling at quite an average indicated airspeed, 165/1.2 = 137.5 knots. Published VNE is 123kts @ 40 C correcting for temperature.
I believe that the route though this area is the one Robinson prefers due to lack of high mountains, the destination was eastern Canada if I'm not mistaken.