HUET and CRM?
I think this is very sad news indeed. However it may possibly highlight the relative lack of continuation training given to these guys these days, despite the now common call to deploy these Ozzie crews on operations, a thing quite rare 10 to 20 years ago. The nine news story points to the last major Blackhawk tragedy which in my memory had as a contributing factor a similar lack of training and recency. There certainly is nothing wrong with the aircraft.
Landing on boats, rigs etc is a common task for offshore pilots. The job is done on a daily basis by day and night. There are mishaps but relatively few, and when there are, most people successfully evacuate, eg the G-JSAR incident last week.
Sadly many of the lessons of the civil industry are not passed on to those in the military, such as HUET. (Although this training was available for military crews in the eighties.) Many ex military pilots with this experience also tend not to be involved with the now common 'civil military ab initio' and advanced training. Perhaps this should be encouraged. Maybe someone could enlighten this author whether CRM training and recurrency is a part of ab initio and Squadron training these days.
HUET possibly should be passed on to troops operating to ships as well. All passengers travelling offshore are required to undergo this training.
Too much speculation I think.... Hopefully more will come to light through the video of what went wrong. Did an engine fail prior to commital point. Was there a commital point? etc.
My sincere sympathy to the family and friends.