SKWINTY - Based on Hopkins press release, (as a typical pilot I'm frugal - OK cheap - to the point of not wanting to spend $20 to download the actual report) there were two things that struck me. First was the use of the word "crash." That's an inflamatory word that undoubtedly includes successful autorotations that resulted in being classified as accidents due to post landing damage or sinking. The second thing that stuck me was classifying "crash's" by years instead of by hours flown. Just by the periods mentioned, the 1980's were slow whereas the 1990's saw a boom and the Gulf has hundreds of helicopters. Anyway, back to how things are now - they are a lot better and that's reflected in the current trend.
HPIC - Little ships (206's, 407's) have basic instuments including an attitude indicator, RMI, VSI, altimeter etc. They are not instument equiped or certified. The procedure taught in the event of inadvertant IFR is to keep wings level and climb straight ahead hopefully to VFR, or at 1000 feet begin a 180 degree turn back to where you came from or to a known clear area as shown on the GPS.