Thanks to all for the input
I think I'm going to quit banging my head against the terminology but....
I know the Brit military and others define "land immediately" as on whatever terrain you're flying over. Trees, water, buildings? etc. So, to save your own sorry backside you endanger people below you.
Landing in trees is not for the faint-hearted and depending on their height you could scribble yourself and all your pax anyway. Then burn the evidence, in the post-crash fire.
Landing civvies in the Thames, say, in a non-floated heli, you're going to drown someone for sure.
Surely 30 seconds spent landing somewhere survivable is a better solution.
Fascinating to hear that Bell doesn't use "Land immediately" now. I'll never be unkind about their use of English again! (The Bell 212 rate of climb tables that had only negative numbers comes to mind!)
Last edited by MBJ; 18th Feb 2015 at 11:29.
Reason: Typo and add text