Here's a primer on helicopter crashes. 

The main rotor puts out a lot of torque. If it weren't for the tail rotor spinning 3x faster or greater the Huey wouldn't fly. The tail blades help prevent the spin, stabilize the helicopter, and acts as a rudder by applying more or less power to counter the rotational torque from the main rotor. A helicopter is basically 2000 moving parts flying in close formation. And in this case if the wings are moving faster than the body, you're  on a helicopter. 

If you take out the tail, then the chopper begins to spin, and the rotor stops, or spins slowly. It still provides some downward force, which helps slow the fall. If the main rotor is damaged, it's going to spin as well, but slower, and it's probably going to maneuver and wallow like a drunken sailor or a bovine with Mad Cow Disease. 

In our case the cockpit took a direct hit, so the whirlybird is a dead stick. No control, and linkages and hydraulics are damaged. It's not going to fall like a rock. Instead it's going to spin like a top and come to the ground at about forty-five degrees almost like a glide angle, though what position and orientation it actually is when it hits God only knows. From there, the real bad things happen. 

In the meantime as it's coming down, physics are your enemy. Being flung from the chopper by it's rotation out the door is probably what's really going to be bad. If you're hundreds of feet up... sucks to be you. Over jungle you might have a chance to survive. 

A helicopter's bread and butter is staying low to the deck and below radar. If they fly too high, Charlie has SAM (surface to air missile) sites around the region that can reach out and touch, not to mention anti-aircraft. Being high up gives long lines of sight, but if they stay low to mid range they can use the terrain, and maneuver, and also have more of an element of surprise. It just depends on the situation. For something like this, I believe the 1st Cav was not too far above the trees and got caught with their panties down. 

As such it wasn't that far of a drop, and it is likely that a person could have been thrown from the falling Huey. One thing that might alter things in the crash is that it slammed into a tree with enough force to break it in half. Another chance to be thrown out. Rotor blades would have snapped off against it, depending on how much speed and rotation force they had, I'm going to assume they might have. That would throw the broken pieces around, but this means that it's safer for those able to ride the wreck to the ground. When it hits, it's probably going to do on a shearing/shallow angle from the rebound or drop almost straight down, and possibly roll. 

Based on these factors the crash is pretty survivable. A lot of chopper crashes seem to be that way from the accounts of them that I have heard. It's a combination of how they fall out of the sky, and that they aren't usually as high altitude, and how they often 'land' and with what speed and force. Not everybody makes it out, no... but it's not instant death all the time either.

Just my two cents. Not sure why this is hard to understand.