Michael,
It was a case of finding the best spot in a whole series of bad ones. From what I understand there wasn't much time between the engine quitting and having to put it down. It is on a steep slope and in a ravine, from talking to him he just got it as slow as possible and basically put it down on the stall, wherein it dug the nose in and flipped forwards tearing the tail off. It is one very second hand looking a/c.
There are very few places it would be safe to put an a/c down around there and he did a very good job in minimising the damage to himself, most people would have probably gone straight into the hill rather than landing up such a steep slope.