Speaking of helicopters getting airborne with engineers (UK)/mechanics(US) hanging on reminds me of an experieance I had about a hundred years ago when I as in the Royal Air Force. A colleague and I were doing something at the back end of a Belvedere (look it up) while the rotors were turning for which we had to lean across the rear undercarriage struts. Suddenly we were at a 5-foot hover and both of us simply let go of everything and dropped to the ground, luckily the helicopter didn't come down on top of us. It transpired that the loadmaster had not in formed the pilot, who just happened to be the squadron commander, that we were still draped over the undercarraige. After the flight the CO apologised profusely but we were not privy to the discussion between him and the loadmaster.