The point is that I absolutely don't believe Martin made a mistake. And how can it be tempting fate when the absolute worst has already happened?
There are a lot of pilots in this vicinity who have been poorly trained, are badly motivated, have little pride in what they do, think they're heroes because they've got away with mistakes, think the little GPS box in front of them is going to get them out of all trouble, believe they are immortal and that whatever happens its never their fault etc. And then there is someone like Martin who was none of the above. He was experienced. He was careful and WAAAY more than most pilots, checked and double checked what he was doing in a cockpit and why.
Plausible scenario is that something went bang in the engine, flames in the cockpit, turned fuel off, called mayday, turned less than 20 degrees off runway heading towards any available clearing, attempted to land. No power/not much controls/possibly a lot of unbearable heat/flames/fumes/smoke in cabin and clipped a tree tearing the wing off and ... the rest is history.