Thanks to VeeAny to putting across the some of the facts.
The situation was not handled as I would have wished however if pilots alerted ATC to a problem in good time it would be easier to provide them with a better service. If there is time to get a message to an engineer surely the same info can be passed to ATC.
This incident occurred shortly after the aerodrome owners had contacted a third party to provide a General Manager, this introduced an additional level of back covering.
Having discussed this incident with another GA Aerodrome and a heliport, neither considered that deplaning pax in the hover was an option. They do now!
As with any incident all involved have looked at what happened and have learnt form it. Next time we will do better.