The article finishes with...
Once upon a time there was a young, troubled war veteran who just wanted to go home.
I wonder how it would have been reported (then and now) if he'd lost it on take off and planted it into a housing estate ??? Dude was to some degree intoxicated and completely unqualified - any outcome was in play I venture. That fact that he ended up in the oggin, whilst individually tragic for him and his loved ones, would have been something of a relief for most of us, would it not??