quote "Numerous accidents have been caused by the requirement to fly so as to accommodate a cameraman shooting from a side door, so a new certified bracket that will encourage use of stabilised gimbals is fine by me"
Mick, i think that you will find that the accidents that have happened have been caused by the cameraman/producer/pilot/helicopter operator using the wrong helicopter and pilot for the job, not from the requirement to film from an open door.
if in any of the accidents that have happened, you simply increased the aircraft size/category, ie move from 44 to JR, JR to LR/350, 350B to B3/BK/427/429, BK to 139, etc then very few of the accidents would have occurred. While you will say that some of the accidents may well have happened, then i doubt that filming from the side was the cause, more like pilot error, all the rest of the side door filming accidents are caused from a helicopter being flown outside of the aircraft limits.
If the customer had been prepared to pay for a larger helicopter, or the operator/pilot had put their foot down and limited the number of people taken on the helicopter, then the accidents wouldn't have happened, as the majority have been pilots flying a perfectly good helicopter into the ground. And yes i do agree that the cameraman is in a really bad position in an accident, especially if he is still hanging out the door when they hit the ground.