given the sea state and temperature, an intentional ditching would have almost certainly meant that somebody's gonna die
Is there something about that situation that needs considering.....such as why we are flying that day at all?
Let's add in the thought the Canadian Government SAR aircraft was away for training and Cougar knew it had to provide its own SAR aircraft by established agreement with the SAR folks.
The Cougar SAR bird was not configured for that mission on a ready basis but was rigged and launched very quickly after the ditching.
There is far more to this crash than meets the eye....and all of this figures into the factors that weighed upon the crew that day.
I have worried the usual "pilot error" tag would be applied to this accident and I think if that is done then the system will have done these two pilots well and truely dirty in all regard.
What we need to do is use this tragedy to point out the very real failures in the certification system, training system, and management policies of both the oil and helicopter industry that allowed this to happen.
Otherwise, more lives are going to be lost for the same reasons.