I'm very sorry to hear it, of course, and it is a truly dreadful thing to happen.
I didn't like how Alan Sugar jumped on it by saying "I'm a fixed wing pilot blah blah blah I hate helicopters. I very reluctantly flew in one for the Apprentice filming." As someone who is quite involved with helicopters and the aviation industry, I don't like people turning this in to a 'helicopters are unsafe' argument, and it does hurt me a little to hear that. I'm aware, from personal experience, that of all vehicles, Helicopters are some of the hardest out there to control due to the fact that they have a tendency to be unstable, or as many a pilot will say 'they don't want to fly', and of all the aspects of flying, over correction of the cyclic whilst trying to hover is certainly one of those problems that takes ages to overcome and if you were thrown in to it with no experience, bad results would happen. That being said, just like with anything that involves muscle memory, once you have learnt it, you can master it and it can become more subconscious. And the odds of something like this happening are very small indeed, which makes it all the more unfortunate. The idea that helicopter flying is inherently dangerous is a complete and utter myth.
