DANGER !!! I would NOT follow the advice about the pic jumping out over water !!!!! It MAY have been done in special circumstances ..??
Is it just me ... But A). The only scenario of having to hover and drop off pax would be Main Xnsn chip ,....and even then I would carry on taxiing towards land rather than get wet B) knowing you are within min of running out of fuel .... Maybe but would prob still do same as A but with doors open .
What I would never ever do is try to climb out of the helicopter in flight as Pic !!
There would be a real danger of the aircraft coming down on top of you , or on top of your pax a few metres away . ( if they are much further away then there is the extra danger of you being split up ). To me it sounds daft when there are virtually no known successful ones done and masses of successful ditchings !!!!
Just let it settle in with minimum rrpm , shut off fuel and apply rotor brake sounds much safer to me
Ps also a very controlled landing in many cases can give you something to sit on which floats ....that is the airframe which has not been crunched when it flips over with nobody at the controls ...... Think about it ......As always happy to learn from an expert .