I can’t explain that without knowing the specifics of each crash. For example, there are frequent reports out of Iraq of helicopters crashing after some sort of failure. I can think of a few reasons: Unsuitable landing areas, such as a rocky mountainside. (An airplane would not fare well there either.) Helicopters often operate low and slow. Less time to react when something goes wrong. They might have been operating in the dead man’s curve – either too fast and too low, or too slow and too low.
I was thinking more commercial. I believe the military helicopters you’re referring too had a weak link in the transmission case. Something about a gear that required a rocket scientist to properly harden it. I considered that a problem related to a specific aircraft.
Commercial helicopters are often used in ‘dangerous’ situations. News helicopters can be somewhat close together (always a cause of dread when you’re on the freeway and you see a gaggle of helis hovering a few miles ahead – time to resign one’s self to a long commute!) and a couple crashed together in Phoenix a couple of years ago. And they tend to operate over cities. Here’s a video of a news helicopter that had a problem, and there was no suitable place to land. (There was a thread on it, I think. I don’t remember what the conclusion was. Seeing the video again, I’m guessing a tail rotor failure.) In this case there was a mechanical problem, low and slow, and over buildings. Logging helicopters sometimes crash. Again, they’re operating in dangerous conditions. A helicopter with a long-line might be too low clearing a ridge, and the suspended cargo might hit the ground and be kicked up into the tail rotor.
I’ll just point out, for those who didn’t know, the Attack of the Killer Tomatoes crash was a real and unscripted crash that got left in the film. Presumably the pilot was ok.
Those are the kind I was referring to. May I ask what city you took them in? As I said I’ve only seen them advertised in NYC and San Francisco. I think the NYC one would be fun, still I don’t think I’ll ever have enough guts to do it 
Alaska and Hawai’i, so they were much less city-fied.
I ride in a helicopter about once a week and no one has ever told me where to sit.
Some aircraft it makes a difference and some it doesn’t. It will only be a concern on those aircraft where it does make a difference if there’s a wide spread of passenger weights or a number of empty seats.
In our aircraft (Dash 8), which is a lot bigger than any helicopter, it matters from a legal stand point but not from a practical one. I do the load sheet based on people sitting in certain seats (fore and aft) and so legally that’s where they must sit. But it’s not possible to load passengers in any way that results in being out of balance, so from a practical point of view, it doesn’t matter where they sit. And If I want to give a passenger (we normally only carry one if any) the option of sitting in the jump seat or in the rear passenger seats, I can just do two load sheets and sign off on the one that matches where they chose to sit.
When I used to fly a Shrike though, if we just had the standard two crew plus pilot, the lighter crew member had to sit in the front and/or I’d have to put ballast in the cargo hold.
Actually, you are still sitting where the pilot told you to sit. It just so happens that the pilot has decided that you can sit wherever you want to.
When I was a kid I always liked the Shrike. 
My mom and ‘stepfather’ took a GA-sized aircraft to complete a trip once. Mom was barely five feet tall and 100 pounds. Her husband was close to six-and-a-half feet tall and 260. I think the aircraft was a six-seat twin. They put my mom in the back, since she was so light. The pilot apologised to my mom’s husband, and informed him that he’d have to sit in the right seat next to the pilot. It’s possible he was apologising for separating them, but the way my mom told it it was as if it was some sort of hardship having to sit up front. She said, ‘Of course the pilot didn’t know that [her husband] was a pilot and that for him it was a treat!’ (Mom held a Private license herself.)
Go early in the morning. The air is smoother and the ride should be less bumpy.
Sit in front of the rotor mast, if possible. The mast is a pivot point for yawing (L/R swing), and its easier on the tummy if that is behind you.
Go for the bigger ship. Bigger helo=more mass= less bumpy.
Ignore rotor-heads and Airedales who enjoy debating the technical aspects of power-off landing vs. autorotation. Fascinating, but extraordinarily unlikely (and non-responsive).
Note that these may be impossible to do together (bigger ship=more seats=less likely to sit in the front). I prioritized them in importance order.
That’s interesting. My partner (who used to get sick in cars as a child, and gets sick on boats, but has never been sick on a plane) got very sick the one time we went in a helicopter.
I’ve only flown three times in a helicopter (I thought it was “heliocopter”) and all three times it was a Huey. It was a total kick in the ass. This off my ship in Vietnam. When the crew saw I was having fun, the pilot played around a little. They were all cool guys.
Anyway, once while we were flying steady, I noticed the ship seemed to be making little circles around the “Z” axis which I could feel. I forgot to ask about it.
BTW; the helo ride to Alcatraz is gone. Never took it, I’m a little queasy about the prison. 
Peace,
mangeorge
Only time I flew in a helicopter was shortly after I read a description of what a helicopter actually is. It was described as a machine with 10,000 moving parts all trying to move in a different direction at the same time, so I was a little preoccupied with that thought.
Did it mention the “Jesus Bolt”, the single bolt that holds the whole thing together?
Heh, I actually started an article on that very phenomenon on TVtropes.com: Hellish Copter. I recommend you don’t click that link if you were planning to be productive today, as TVTropes is very addictive.
According to Wiki, he got out relatively unharmed. Thought it was weird that that just happened allofasudden when I was watching the clip.
I was told that it is a :jesus nut", and that it held the rotor on. Usually.
During preflight, I’d climb up to check the linkages, make sure the paint marks on all of the nuts were lined up, check to make sure the safety wires were intact, etc. Every time I’d look at the one bolt and say to myself, ‘This is the one bolt that holds the rotor on. Best not to think about it.’ 
I’m just finishing up my PPL, I have ~50hrs in an R22. I always get a little nervous in airplanes but feel safe as houses in a helicopter.
I’m a wet-behind-the-ears green as grass student pilot and I can do an auto and put 'er on the runway numbers. Your pilot will have hundreds of hours and loads of training under his belt.
I’d go for it, helicopters feel nothing like planes to me and they’re FUN.
And built by the lowest bidder!