How to escape a sinking helicopter

Does anyone else feel compelled to read any article with a headline like this? I know if I don't read it and then for some reason find myself on a sinking helicopter the only thing I will be thinking about is why didn't I read that article!<p>As it turns out, this article only talks about specialised training and special devices and the dangers of crashing in cold oceans. Probably not many handy hints for the casual helicopter passenger.

BOSIET and HUET classes are a blast, if you spend any time on/around the water for work, I'd highly recommend getting signed into one ASAP. If you're not going to be in arctic areas, most facilities offer a T (Tropical) BOSIET that's a bit shorter in duration and you don't have to put on the arctic survival (gumby) suits. I refreshed my BOSIET (which includes HUET) only about a month ago, if anybody has any questions feel free to fire away!

<i>"In water chilled to 50 degrees F, an Olympic swimmer was able to hold his breath for only 10 seconds. Another Olympian, this one a silver medalist, was able to breast stroke for about 7 minutes before she lost all muscle control and devolved into a slowly undulating tangle of limbs. Message received."</i><p>Can anyone find a source for this? I've swam in some seriously cold water (partially iced over lake water, I don't know how cold it was) and it is <i>really stunningly</i> bad, but that seems rather off. The best I can find (some USCG powerpoint about surviving airplane crashes in water) has lack of muscle control beginning at around 10-15 minutes, which seems more in line with what I have experienced.

I expected the article to talk about getting to the surface without getting beat up by the rotor blades. I guess the rotor stops fairly soon after hitting the water, or else the downdraft would push you safely away?

Intrusive add that caught my click. I left the site without even seeing the article...