It has been quiet common in the "old times" that-when an accident occur ed-other pilots were just rumouring about the technical aspects of this occurence.....
I really hate to see that most pilots turned into "pilot bashers", without even knowing what happened...
If the pilot did something wrong (and if he did-the investigation will find out)-yeah, blame him for that....
Until then-stop bashing........and focus on what happened....(and on what we KNOW...)...
It does not matter whether he needed to have a dinghi with him-it would not have prevented this accident (but maybe the outcome of it)......