Years ago we used to regularly drop parachutists from up to 12,000 feet from our Puma helicopters. We did NOT use static lines, it was not allowed, free jumping only was the SOP. We used to fly with the gear up, at 55 kts and the jumpers used to dive out. Some of the crazy fools even overtook me, sitting in the right hand seat, by getting a run from the rear of the cabin, so they could wave. It always concerned me that one of them would get snagged or cause something to go through the tail rotor.
So I was never keen on this job, too many "what ifs" for my liking, especially as we weren't given chutes as pilots.
A few years before I arrived at the scene of this incident just after it had happened. They wouldn't have been so lucky in a helicopter: