hile 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.
I don't disagree, taking a door off and taking direction from a cameraman or photographer shouldn't affect flight saftey.
As you say larger aircraft generally have a better record but are not immume, two jet rangers have crashed this year whilst open door filming, one fatal. (Not to mention two other cameraman killed in microlights in the last two months.)
A common factor for open door fatalities is that the pilot is a one man band without a senior pilot or management to oversight of the flight.
A coincidental but positive factor in using stabilised mounts is that due to the relative high cost of renting the equipment there is usually a considered plan!
Also time taken to rig gives a pilot more time to get their act together and often there is an engineer looking over the installation.
The USA feature film industry has a solid planning process where one man heli bands
do have a good record, I suggest due to the planning procedure.
Without hard stats we can only go on what appears to be the obvious and rational.
Mickjoebill