No, I don't. This is just one SAR environment, significantly offshore which for the most part experiences windspeeds strong enough to disperse the downwash. The claim was made - twice - that this is the world's most capable SAR helicopter but no amount of careful forethought can fully mitigate the effects downwash like that in most SAR environments, especially coastal and overland.
Our SAR missions are not exclusive to offshore environments, in spite of being the majority of it. Even so, the conditions - wind conditions as well - are not that different. But even if you have a 0kt wind condition the operation is quite safe (I remind you we hoover at 60ft over sea, normally lower in land, depending on the operational scenario).
A big part of our rescue effort is cliff rescue and in this case we do have extra attention to the downwash effect to assure that no loose rocks can affect our operation. Once again, we adapt. We know the aircraft and we study the terrain.
In fact, and because we´re talking about "inshore" operations, in late April this year the south of Portugal was affected by some unusual strong floods. I was the captain on one rescue mission where we had an individual stuck in the middle of a flooded riverbank, with his car totally submerged. More or less 40NM from the coastline. I remember this mission well because when we recovered the guy he was worried about his car. Not his life. Go figure.
The operation went exactly like any other sea rescue regarding our procedure. Wind conditions? 10-15kts.
Here´s a pic (at 60ft with 5-10kts the downwash goes back, as you can see):
Bottom line: based on my experience I don´t think the AW101 downwash is the key factor when evaluating the aircraft. We have 8 years of SAR experience with the Merlin with no problems so far regarding the downwash.
Best regards,