As retired ancient mariner let me add the following.
The prop was still turning when the bloke jumped,, note how far he is away from the stern as soon as he jumped washed aft by the prop wash, you can see the prop wash as the ship scends a couple of seconds after the jump. The ship is still underway, there is no way the ship could maintain that heading with no power. The engine fuel may have been shut of with a small reserve remaining to provide steerage way.

On youtube there is a video of the vessel after the deck cargo boat fell off, in this the engine is stopped and now the bow off the vessel is now pointing downwind,, unlike when the helo was on station when the ship is head to wind..

Thats a fair question, why was the free fall lifeboat ruled out and never used. What is the operational limitation on such a device?

It's possible that they kept what little engine power they had left to maintain a stable(ish) heading to make the helicopters job easier.

It's what we would call a 'standard deck' with the wind between 30-40 degrees off the port bow - this allows the aircraft to sit comfortably into wind but gives the crew a good view of the vessel.

As for the freefall lifeboat, perhaps reefrat can answer that one.

Shytorque may be right - perhaps he saw it as his last chance by jumping before the capsize.

Re. the guy in the water, on Whirlwinds (because of the limited winch cable (60'), in some circumstances a water pick-up would be easier than one from the deck - no swinging hard bits to snag your cable (or winchman!). The 'survivor's immersion suit looks to be substantial enough for the time needed,so, a reasonable option, I would think. Deck winching was always considered to be the more difficult operation - and that was when the vessel was under way and controllable. Ideally, we wanted to winch off the bow with the vessel heading 30 degs starboard of downwind. Theoretically it meant minimum pitch from the swell and helo into wind with best view of the ship. That's how it was practised with the Marine Craft and lifeboats.
The only one I did for real was 70 miles off Cyprus on a 120, 000 ton tanker, winching on a rear deck the size of a football field - and the smell of oil was disgusting !:yuk:

Downwind Decks - not the easiest method I can think of - you have to be able to outrun the boat and that was probably tricky in the Whirlwind as it wasn't renowned for its excess power:)

Wow, I caught that “downwind”, too. 😳
Question for those doing this type of work. When the person is ready to be lifted from the deck, do you just start the winch reeling in, or does the pilot pull a little collective to get them smartly away from all those moving bits on the ship?

Pilot holds position under the con of the winch op. He’s got LoS with the winchman who normally hand signals when he’s ready for lift. Cable tension taken up slowly and then off they come. If more than one lift expected a hi line would be deployed to stabilise the lift. The pilot will normally have conducted a dummy to assess his power, references and any turbulence.

LZ

Rotorfan - just to note that a 'downwind' deck isn't with the helicopter being downwind - it is pointing into wind but moving backwards at the same speed as the boat, ideally only at a few knots.

The idea is that a boat will be more stable running downwind as it is usually down sea as well so you don't have it smashing into the waves as it would be into wind and sea.

The problem comes in lighter winds when the movement away from the wind loses ETL and requires extra power and, on a faster moving vessel, the extra rearward speed can affect control margins.

In big seas with a lot of boat movement in the vertical axis (heave), it can be useful to assist the winch op by climbing the aircraft as he starts to winch in but that would normally be pre-briefed. The voice command from the winch op 'UP, UP, UP' also works well in an emergency:)

It surprised me as well but freefall lifeboat have a launch limit of 20 degrees Static list of the vessel.

Perhaps I should have clarified - I was considering the conditions seen in the video !!! In light winds and normal sea state, we would look tp winch onto a clear space (preferably the stern) and with the vessel remaining either on course or into wind. The nature of S&R is that it is, more often than not, ad hoc. The 'book' offers technique ... not solutions !

Very true CJ - I always tried to get junior pilots to understand that every job is different so a 'one-size fits all' solution is unlikely to be the best way to operate.

In fact, on closer inspection of the video, that is a parallel deck with the boat and aircraft both heading into wind.

The longest distance I went offshore for a rescue was well over 200 miles, in an S-76. To say we were concerned about fuel was an understatement because we had no idea what we were about to be faced with on reaching the ship and how long the pickup would take; we had nothing to spare and were well beyond the normal range of our aircraft. Thankfully we didn’t have to winch at all - we landed on instead! A big relief.

Be a very nasty ride in the lifeboat in the strong gale conditions; a quick ride in the helo to tea and toast by the fire side rather than being belted about the north sea for days. Transfer from the life boat to a rescuing ship might involve a jump into the sea as well.