The survival of a copter crashes is usually when the copter is not not too high up and has no forward momentum. I think they call it an auto-rotate. The pilot control the copter and the wind of the fall goes through the blades supplying some lift to fight against the fall. The seats in the copters are a type of G-shock. They are designed to collapse to absorb some of the energy of the impact. Unfortunetly, I think Kalani would have had a lot of forward momentum into the tanker and there just aint much there to protect the pilot.

My best friend was a chopper pilot for the Air Force. He died in an emergency air lift rescue while flying low and fast.