Originally Posted by
Squawk7700
Fuel state is irrelevant as YMAV was closer. Also, they had literally just taken off, seemingly did their first manoeuvre and this happened. If they were short on fuel at that point, they shouldn't have been there.
FWIW,
unless fuel state was an issue (and it sounds like it wasn't), in my inexpert opinion, YMAV could be a totally inappropriate option following a low-altitude in-flight emergency near Mornington since your flight path would be (a) taking you well outside gliding distance of land and (b) from the moment you head west to get to one of the YMAV north-south approaches, taking you over deep unfriendly water a very long way from help, should you need to ditch along the way. Sure, you wouldn't kill anyone else, but staying coastal as he did makes the most sense to me.