So you’re taking what Eddie posted as gospel, despite the evident evasiveness and geographical oddities in what he posted?
If something was wrong with the aircraft so as to have misled the PIC as to FOB, that would have been mentioned in the ATSB report, would it not? If there was something wrong with the aircraft, there would have to been some maintenance investigation and documentation, would there not? Do you seriously believe that CASA would have issued the necessary paperwork to let the operator kick the tyres and light the fires after a forced landing where there was a suggestion of aircraft defects being causally connected with the forced landing?
You need to sharpen and apply Ockham’s Razor.