As she has done a fait bit of media now I feel I can say a bit more about this.
For all the people with opinions about ditching, I was Michelle's CPL instructor, I learned to fly on an island where there was a lot of over water flying and we had ditching drlls drummed into us over and over. I was able to pass that knowledge on to her and she put it into action and it worked.
The main thing is to maintain control, for that you need airspeed, and to land as flat as you can along the swell and get the door open before you reach the water. She did exactly that and it worked. Flaps not relevant.
She owned that aeroplane, knew it inside out and did her hour building in it including adventures into remote areas.. She keeps meticulous fuel logs. So what happened? Maybe we'll never know, but it's been disappointing to see how many on social media have had said that being female is a contributing factor in "running out of fuel", I would dare any of them to say it to her face! Or mine!
Meanwhile here is an interesting article on ditching by Paul Bertorelli
EQUIPPED TO SURVIVE (tm) - Ditching Myths Torpedoed!