The only survivor of the Durant crash was Durant himself; everyone else in the chopper was killed on impact. I'm not sure how many survivors there were in the Wolcott crash,
In the movie, the only survivor at Durant's site was Durant, and of course at Wilcot's site, movie had two or three survivors. So, strictly speaking you're right if the movie was your only reference.
In reality, everyone survived the crash at Durant's site, both the crew chiefs as well as the copilot and Durant himself. At Wilcot's site, I believe there were six survivors after the crash, the four Delta snipers in the back and both crew chiefs. Although the accounts aren't entirely clear. I think one of the Delta snipers was KIA defending the downed chopper.
Certainly, in the case of Shugart and Gordon, those two shouldn't have been dropped in. They were facing essentially hopeless odds not matter how you looked at it.
But Wilcott crash site was different, it so much closer, it made sense at that moment to try to secure the site and pull the people out. That decision was made prior to Durant's chopper going down I think. It was about five blocks to the Wilcott site from their original position, and they had also dropped in their CSAR team which arrived after one of the Ranger chalks.
To have just pulled out and then try to go back in force might not have worked. It might have saved Durant's chopper from getting shot down, but not likely. And they would've had to write off all eight people on Wilcott's bird all the while watching it on live TV. But even if Durant's bird hadn't gone down, it would've been very troublesome getting back in there, they had to get Pakistani and Malaysian armor organized to go back in. That took until almost midnight.
The alternative was to pull out and then to go back in on Humvees and five tons supported by choppers might have been suicide, because they weren't better off then before. And it would've given the Samolis even more time to prepare for ambush of the relief column. They might have come off better in terms of pure casualties if they just abandoned Wilcott's bird, but it would've destroyed that entire unit morale. The lesson would've then been: "We won't abandon you that is as long as the numbers work out."
So, in hindsight, the mission was a total mess from the moment Wilcott's chopper got hit, but really, in the middle of a firefight where you have to make these snap decisions or people will die, I bet it's just not that easy to sit back and say: "let's pull out, accept the casualties and go back for them later." And all things considered, they were within a few moments of finishing their original mission with just a few casualties when the Wilcott's bird went down.
