Thanks for the compliment, DS. There are just a few former USN/former SA pilots who will be smiling at ex Army guy Dixson being asked about flying over water!
Actually you ask a good question, but in this case, the published information makes it impossible to draw conclusions.
Precautions? If the seas were smooth ( glassy ) altitude control by vision can be asking for trouble, but that one picture indicates the surface was not smooth.
Would they have the ship coupled up? Not if they were going to play Maverick and do a buzz job.
Haven’t seen any authoritative information about their speed,nor,for that matter about their altitude,but, if they were going, say 150 and 20 ft, the person flying had better be paying attention. Again, no detailed information about their flight path has been diviulged.
Stuff happens quickly when you are low. We had a new guy join the gun platoon in the 119th in 1965 and I took him out to do the “dusk patrol”: single ship, low level armed, guns hot, recon around Camp Holloway in the days after the attack. The idea was to spot any unfriendly folks getting together for a replay of what had happened earlier. Anyway, the new pilot was flying and I and the crewchief and gunner were looking. I was looking at something off to my left, when SMASH, the new guy flew into the top of a tree. Sun was out, we were not flying toward the sun, no clouds or rain. His flight path before I looked left was fine. He was a good guy and could not explain how he flew into that tree.