The last helicopter escape drill I did was in Perth (Oz) when I was 65. Fairly innocuous as it was in a heated swimming pool which matched the temperature of the sea around Western Australia.
We did the usual roll over and climb out of the back, passenger, department with the bears and then came the pilot's bit.
I was in the left hand seat and we rolled over, stopped and went through the procedure. My oppo in the RHS disappeared but my cockpit door wouldn't open. I then did the sensible thing and exited across the cockpit through the other door.
When I surfaced I got an astronomical bollocking from the floating safety bloke because I had gone the 'wrong way'. I explained that my door was jammed but they had to sit inside whilst they rotated it again to find out the I was right and it had jammed.
I learnt about departing via an alternative exit during my initial helicopter escape training at HMS Vernon in the submarine escape tank.
Such a procedure was not mentioned during the Perth briefing.