Dinger, bear in mind the "emergency" aircraft never declared a mayday and never made its situation clear so how could the Controller possibly react correctly?
Additionally do you really suppose (I take it you aren't a pilot...) that with a ditching in prospect the crew were the least bit interested in what the "contoller" thought or wanted them to do and weren't doing what was needed anyway?
It'll be interesting to see why both engines failed though...There's a lot more to this story to come, so let's reserve judgement until the facts become clear.