I would say that throwaway lines like that arent really helpful - lets be honest, investigators havent done their thing yet and you cant know that was what the pilot was doing. and....it is not really true, it would depend on the training, aircraft performance, etc. I have flown for various air forces, about 3/4 of which train and plan for turnbacks depending on the circumstance. there are times where they make sense, and times where they dont.