All the banter is pretty much useless...sad fact is people lost their lives in this accident.
Having had a similar experience in the Antilles some moons ago, I frightened myself to death when I temporarily lost orientation. Moonless, black black night sky
My point is that sometimes we just have to say "NO". The big problem is where do we draw the line. Most of the times we get bullied into a situation by people who have no clue about flying helicopters.
But then again, hindsight is always 20/20.