The France 3 article linked on the Aviation Safety Net page shows a map of the approximate crash location - on one side of the road is a large house with an oblong field surrounded by trees - the talk of taking off in an unusual direction may be lifting out of that area across the field instead of down it.
It wouldn't take much of a drift in that case to get too close to the trees either ahead or behind and a TR or MR strike could easily have disastrous consequences.