Quoted from Thermionic:

The major issue in these scenarios is vertigo; although it would seem logical that the pilot knew his altitude via instruments, his perception of what the aircraft was doing based upon the "seat of his pants" might have differed from what the instruments were indicating, leading to a situation where the pilot became disoriented and did not have sufficient time to recognize the confusion promptly enough to avert an accident.
With extremely low visibility conditions, your instruments can tell you one thing but your body (vestibular system) might feel something different, and it is VERY easy to get disoriented and confuse "up" from "down" when this happens. It is difficult to learn to rely on instruments rather than "feel" in these situations, and even experienced pilots can make this mistake (especially when under duress in a crisis situation where a dozen things are happening simultaneously). It is difficult to fully appreciate this phenomenon unless one has some flying experience and has encountered this scenario, but it is most certainly a major factor in many accidents.
The reason he may not have been able to land as you suggest is due to risk of rotor strike. Given the reported conditions, the pilot's visibility may well have been shorter than the radius of the rotor blades, which would have placed him at risk of hitting something unseen during descent.
Also, helicopters must maintain a given altitude for a given speed in order to maximize the ability to autorotate in the event of power loss. These numbers are specific to the helicopter model in question and are provided by the manufacturer in the form of a Height-Velocity curve (AKA "dead man's curve"); a graph of altitude as a function of airspeed is plotted, and the combinations of height+speed which are insufficient to permit a safe autorotation landing are shaded and must be avoided during flight (see below). It is possible that the pilot may have been unable to fly in the clearer conditions closer to the ground for this reason.
Sadly, this flight was probably doomed the instant it took to the air, a situation where the only winning move was to avoid playing the game in the first place. As pointed out by the OP, the pressure to "perform" can be enormous due to a myriad of factors, and (as is human nature) one poor decision tends to beget subsequent poor decisions, which can easily cascade out of control and lead to tragedy.[quoted image]