Lets go back and see how many twin engine UK police aircraft have crashed ....seems like a couple within the past year or am I mistaken? The Two engine smartass remarks we hear from the eastern end of the saltwater divide everytime a single engine helicopter winds up in the scrap yard following a forced landing does get old......at least we don't say things just as silly when the UK Po-leece stuff one into the ground for some other reason.
I swear by two engines but also understand that with most of these light twins....the good engine is only going to take us to the scene of the crash.....and before you start on the CAT A bovine feces.....no we don't operate at those weights. At some point.....reality has to take over and determine what we do in flying.....the point about a single tail rotor....heck...just lose one part of a tail rotor blade.....and you will find yourself in a much worse predicament than a mere engine failure (be it on a single or multiengine helicopter). It was not so long ago.....during the search for the two young girls that were murdered....that I observed live and on international television.....a UK police helicopter hovering along with a picture taker stood outside the cabin......an engine failure there would have been most exciting....definitely not Cat A profiles being used then.
The Police have a dangerous job to do....and my hat is off to them....especially the US Cops that fly around in the singles....I am much too old for that but that doesn't mean it cannot be done just as safely as with a twin. The majority of the engine failures on singles in the Gulf of Mexico have been due to contaminated fuel.....and that would kill two engines just as quickly as one.
Think back to the North Sea fatal crashes....just how many of those were due to an engine failure? We have seen tail rotor failures, main rotor failures, pilots stuffing the aircraft into the water....but I personally cannot recall a fatal accident stemming from an engine failure though there very well might have been one.