I think that as is common in our media-driven world he's fallen out of favour rapidly since his Scientology exploits have become public. Any time you mention him now he's likely to be dismissed as a whacko, but I don't think anyone can deny he's consistently good in his film roles, and it sounds like he's a decent bloke in real life.
They would have had to watch themselves with that spiral descent close to the terrain if there was indeed a big overspeed - I can just imagine the cliffs looming up and the good old 'servo transparency' rearing its ugly head just as you were trying to pull out.