Anyone brave enough to explain emlube?
The Emergency Lubrication system allows 30 minutes at Vy (80 kts) so whilst that is a "good thing" as in general it will allow one to land somewhere solid, that cannot be guaranteed if the heli is outside 40 miles (still air) from a landing opportunity. Since the aircraft came down allegedly 25 miles from EGPD it was perhaps in that slightly awkward zone inside of 80 miles with few landing opportunities. Not sure what the wind direction was but looks NE so hard to turn back out to sea and into wind to reach an installation further out.
At least the 30 mins allows SAR to be launched and reduces time in the water / dinghies.
Of course it is possible for the emergency lube system to fail to activate (or at least, to give indications of failure) in which case the drill is land immediately. At this stage only a select few know if this happened, and I am not one of them!
Are the Bond ec225 not equipped with glycol 30 min. lubrication?
Yes, as are all EC225s - it is part of the certification requirement, not an optional extra.
HC