Appreciate the explanation. I've rapelled out of a few choppers in the day, hung underneath a few, and rode many a medical transport, and they always scared the crap out of me.....lol. It's not that i wouldn't fly in one, but rather i always respected their limitations, the same as with any other aircraft. When i was small, my dad was a commander of the state civil air patrol wing, and one of my earliest memories was riding along while they were doing a ground search for a down fixed wing in a heavy fog. We lived next to a rural airport, and we located the plane less than a mile from our house. Pretty traumatic as a young boy, but as bad as it was, the pilot lived but he never flew again.

I say that because I question why the passengers agreed to take the chopper with fog in the area? I have to assume the ground conditions were such that none of the passengers were aware of the low ceiling? Just curious, and since you were in the area, you could say for sure. Monday morning quarterbacks are always right, but I can say for sure I would never jump on any small aircraft with fog in the area, no matter how confident the pilot was.