Plenty of owner/operators with AOCs doing the same stuff, too.
Typical scenario: Finish the job at last light, but then you are supposed to start at the next station 100 miles away at first light. So you gotta ferry it over there in the dark, right?
"No worries, I got away with it the last 5 times I did this".
Except this time it's a new moon (as it was in this latest accident, by the way)
"Oh well that's what the landing lights are for".
....
This wasn't the first time this has happened, and it won't be the last.
One of the big troubles is that these blokes are not professional aviators with accomplished professional airman-ship and downright refuse to seek or acknowledge such traits.
That right there is the core of the problem. A lot of these pilots wouldn't even refer to themselves as pilots. They operate helicopters the same way one would operate a motorbike.