Magnets

Send a coastguard team to an incident, a few people turn up and watch.

Send a helicopter and its like a magnet, people come from miles around to watch.

To actually get the helicopter to fly, those rotors have to spin very fast and this (in its simplistic terms) creates down draft.
Down draft and members of the public don't mix, in fact it blows people over. In the picture above you can see the effects on the water and take it from us, grit, sand, water gets everywhere when it starts blowing !

Please, if directed by any emergency service to move away, its not because we are kill joys. It important, the safety of the public is paramount - the safety of the aircrew is paramount, the safety of my Coastguard team is top.

We don't mind people watching but stay safe.