Okay. Let me try to assess the condition of the helicopter. Dumb reporters, possibly dumber people. First of all, if being "radioactive" means that it has contamination on it (they don't elaborate), then even though expensive, it could be decontaminated (though also dumb because it would generate lots of liquid radwaste). If by "radioactive" they mean activation products, then it is even more dumb to be around this thing because it can't be decontaminated.

More => At least one helicopter was used to drop graphite and other stuff onto the molten core at Chernobyl. If the core had been contained (as it would have been at a U.S. reactor with a hard, thick containment), there would be no neutron irradiation with which to contend. But since the containment was essentially a sheet metal building - the roof of which was blown off due to the steam explosion - there was an actual neutron as well as gamma dose to the surrounding area. If this is the helicopter that was used to do the dropping of stuff onto the molten core, then it is probably highly, HIGHLY radioactive from transmutation of stable light elements into radioactive light elements from neutron irradiation from the core.

As for the people. Goodness. Why anyone would actually think of doing something like this is beyond me. The authorities saved a lot of people from unnecessary radiation dose.

As another interesting aside, I knew someone who lived in Kiev. They (all of the homes) still have GM detectors and survey their food before eating it. At a certain number of counts per minute, they throw the food away.

The whole area still suffers from the design of the reactor, which lacks the power coefficient to shut down upon sustaining transients (contrary to the design of U.S. reactors). The design, by the way, is amenable to creating what can eventually be turned into weaponized material, also contrary to U.S. commercial reactor design criteria.

In all, I believe that 36 firefighters and others died soon after the accident. Many more children suffer from thyroid problems (or had to have them removed).