IMO it is entirely your friend's fault Troy. Beginners are beginners because they don't understand their limitations, they don't know what they can and can't do. If an experienced pilot gives an aerobatic model to a beginner and tells them to do a roll the beginner is perfectly entitled to trust that judgement. Experienced pilots ought to understand a beginner's limitations. Beginners can fly a stable trainer around and around, upright, in what appears to be perfect control as good as an experienced pilot. But give them an aerobatic plane with neutral stability and turn it upside down and the beginner has no chance, a crash is guaranteed. Beginners have no experience or understanding of just how quickly an aerobatic model can get out of their control and hit the deck even when they just try to keep it upright, so they can't judge that it is inappropriate for them to try to fly an aerobat or to do aerobatic manouvers, or at least to judge a sensibly safe height to try it which is what your friend should have ensured. It is no fault of yours Troy.

Harry