On one of the German News Channels a spokesman of the participating "DGzRS" (German Maritime Search and Rescue Service) said that the exercise itself was over and that the helicopter circled the rescue cruiser twice and than suddenly lost altitude and contacted the water.
Aser, I understand that you yourself are in the lucky position to fly a "real maritime SAR" helicopter. That's good for you and your crew and I know that for the kind of operation you guys do you have the right choice of helicopter.
However in this particular case we are not talking about flying over the Atlantic coast at night in heavy thunderstorms at beaufort 10+. I wouldn't do that in a BK117 either.
But for the kind of work that is done by the DRF over the Baltic Sea the BK is more than sufficient. As mentioned before it's "only" about "providing HEMS services to offshore wind farms".