While we are all waiting for words of wisdom from the AAIB, I recall a scene from a James Bond film that involved deployment of a rigid inflatable from either an airship, or heli.....perhaps someone remembers more accurately?
Friend of mine, training captain now for a nameless airline, was a young boffin at the time, and actually took part in that interesting ditching, riding the RIB down to the water.... if you buy him a beer he will go into detail...