I clearly remember seeing it on the front pages of the newspapers at the time (when I was a commercial flying instructor) -- and being impressed!
A few years later I was in an airline and a colleague and I were 'positioning' together. During a connection to another flight, we met a past colleague of his who asked him something about his accident (an 'admin' question). When we settled into our seats for the next sector, I asked him "What accident was this?" It was him! He gave a first-hand account and was very matter-of-fact about it. Hearing all this made what I had seen on the front pages of those newspapers mean so much more!
(I would love to see some airline sim instructor try to fit tDODAR into that situation!!)
With modern training, I wonder how many pilots would be able to handle a situation like that? And extreme situations that require real handling skills do occur in the airline world, such as the B777 fan blade separation going into Hawaii and others. (I hope that my training always added that little bit extra of 'flying the aeroplane' rather than 'operating' it.)