As a person largely unqualified to comment I will only say that that anyone who gets out of bed to fly to somebody's rescue, directly or indirectly, is a hero in my book.
I do note that the pilot also had an A109 at his disposal. I guess the man had his reasons and we don't know where his aircraft were positioned. And I too feel saddened by the loss of the pax. That is the tragedy, as they were as always downstream of the decision making process, however good and optimistic the motive.
And in time we may learn, as I hope to, from this episode.