Phew, I just played the beginning of when you return to Hengsha and the heli goes down. I was planning to go pacifist this whole time but when I realized that Malik could die, I said screw it and took out my shotgun and went on a rampage. 
 
I felt like this was a great moment in the game because it allowed you to react realistically. I was trying to play Jenson as a guy who uses lethality as a last resort and this really came through in this area, even if I lost a trophy. 
 
Did anyone else who was going pacifist switch to their lethal weapons at this point? I don't know, maybe I could have done it with non-lethal weapons but I kind of doubt it.. 
  
***No further spoilers please!! Just wanted to share and discuss, haven't beaten the game yet***

Yeah i did go guns blazing in that very spot, just to see if i can safe Malik, but when i realized i could i went with the non-lethal approach. More because I'm a pacifistic coward than for the achievement itself.
Edit: Yeah you can do it non-lethally, no problem, but you have to be fast.

I got behind them with my cloak and went to town with non-lethal takedowns and the stun gun.

I just took out my sniper rifle and started blasting, didn't use it in the game until that point.  I felt killing some dudes was justified because you were helping a friend out.

I just cloaked and tazered everyone since I saved up a decent number of darts (like 40 or something) thanks to to non-lethal takedowns. Tranquilser rifle helped a bit too. All of this whilst. saving Malik and getting the Pacifist achievement. Awesome.

I just used my two enemy takedown aug, and taught those fools a lesson in kick ass. No one had to die that day.

is it possible to save her?  i tried, but couldnt do it

I wasn't going for pacifist, but I had that moment of talking to my monitor haha.
 
Malik: Just go Jensen, focus on the mission!
Me: Well fuck, girl. I ain't leaving your ass behind.

It was pretty awesome, I felt like I was really fighting for something. I hadn't been working on any sort of paficist run, but it felt damn good to go into beast mode and take out all those dudes in the span of a few minutes.

Did it without breaking pacifist as well. Felt great.

A good tip to save her if you are having trouble with time is to take out the 2 heavies and the robot asap. The rest of the dudes deal much less damage to the heli.

I knew I would be able to save her, but unfortunately I was ill equipped to deal with the huge add robot. Needless to say that after she died and I finally took down that bot, the rest of the guys there tasted armblade.

@yinstarrunner said:

I knew I would be able to save her, but unfortunately I was ill equipped to deal with the huge add robot. Needless to say that after she died and I finally took down that bot, the rest of the guys there tasted armblade.

If only you had a single EMP grenade, she could be alive. :(

Think about it.

What's the time limit before she dies? I took a few minutes to take everybody out, and I assumed that as long as you stayed in the area she would live, unless you darted for the elevator.

Didn't know i could save her. 
But then again, i also didn't try to. 
now i feel bad

I love the dialogue when you manage to save her.

@Napalm: It's not timed. The heli basically has HP, so if you don't take out enemies like the 2 heavies and the robot first she can die very quickly. If you do it will give you much more breathing room to take out the rest.

And if you just sneak out before they kill her, it's kinda even worse :(

My first playthrough was on "gimme Deus Ex" difficulty. I had to retry several times. I basically rushed out to the wreckage with an explosive revolver in hand and shot at everything. Chugged a few painkillers and tossed an EMP nade and that was the end of it. I'm going for the pacifist, no alert play-through right now and I'm afraid I'm going to have to let her die this time just so I can get away unseen.

LOL I didn't know you could save her. Dang, I have a lot to learn on my next playthrough, but the hell with the higher difficulties. It makes small annoyances impossible.

@MiniPato: Remaining unseen is not required for the Foxiest of Hounds, it only requires you not to raise actual alarms. Enemies can still be alerted to your presence or see you. So it's possible to save Malik and get both those achievements at the same time.

@Tennmuerti said:

@MiniPato: Remaining unseen is not required for the Foxiest of Hounds, it only requires you not to raise actual alarms. Enemies can still be alerted to your presence or see you. So it's possible to save Malik and get both those achievements at the same time.

Thank god! Here I was reloading each time it would simply go into hostile red mode.

It took me a few tries to save her. For those having problems, it seems like the mech doesn't spawn in until you cross an invisible line on the ground. Instead of going high and blazing through guys, I went low, covered behind a concrete slab near the helicopter and used my combat rifle/pistol to take most guys out from a distance before the mech dropped. Once it does, make sure you get behind it and draw its fire toward you so it ignores Malik.

1 EMP grenade is enough to kill the mech on the hardest difficulty.

I wasn't even aware you could save her...

I too tried to save her pacifist but was struggling and decided that reloading saves over and over wasn't worth it. Gave my character some more motivation.

If she dies, you run into her body. I thought for a sec she was still alive perhaps, but alas.

I saved her with lethal means in my first playthrough.  I did manage to save her using non lethal weapons in my second "Give Me Deus Ex" playthrough, but there was a heavy that kept getting killed by the robot exploding.  Since I was also going for the pacifist achievement and I was worried that might affect it, I reloaded and just went straight for the elevator.  Sorry Malik. :(