Nice post FH1100.
It seems to me, while he may have had a lot of hours in the B model, he did not have proper training for flying out of 34th street. From the pictures I saw of the passengers I wonder what his takeoff weight was. I would think he was very heavy. He needed an airspeed over altitude takeoff. I am thinking he pulled max power(and then some) and tried to climb when he should have gotten some running room off the pad, over the little bulkhead and then nosed it over a little bit towards the water and kept it in ground effect until his airspeed built up and then climbed slowly.
It's a scary thing lowering the nose when you are that close to the water but that's where the proper training comes in. Back in its heyday, Island helicopters did it like that all summer long in the old B models and straight L models.
I did hear today that the helicopter did come out of an annual inspection so there is always a chance something wasn't put back together correctly but I think it was a factor of weight, lack of airspeed and poor take off planning.