AW 139 down in Abu Dhabi
No it is not legal, in the UAE, only a medevac can be done VFR at night, all
other flight should be IFR and IFR require 2 IFR rated pilots in their respective
seat, now one thing that i`ve been told was that J.Hanley was the Captain of the flight but was initially in the copilot seat and Obaid, the National, was the copilot for that flight, i do not know if Obaid was a qualified captain or not, but he was on the Captain seat, Sheik Al Nayan got in the front while
J.Hanley was outside in the back loading the 2 other pax , he went back to the front to try to get back to his seat, but apparently the Sheik wanted to stay in the front, due to the hight rank of Sheik Al Nayan (he was the brother of President of the UAE), John went relutanctely in the back with the other VIP.