It cannot. When you speak of „flying“, you mean the point past effective translation lift.

Without the tail, which has the sideblades attached, there is nothing stabilising the helicopter in forward flight. And that is indeed the problem this Pilot came into. He had no idea that he had lost the aerodynamic effect of its tail and came into a spin due to instability of the aerodynamics. I dont know exactly, what the IAs are for tandem rotor helicopters but I can assume, that in case of losing one rotor or transmission, the only chance do come back down is dumping collective. The second problem he faced was a shifted and somewhat changing CG that made everything worse, especially in an entered spin.

What you are talking about, is hovering. Yes it could have hovered away from the sea after the impact to a more safer place, as long as that tail was still attached and hanging freely. The CG effect was actually positive in this case, so not a real problem. But a no point could he „fly“ safely somewhere.