I disgaree Davey, maybe something along the lines of..............
"We are in the process of contacting the students family, we obviously have our thoughts with Mr.... and hope he makes a speedy recovery. We will be assisting the FAA to explain how this accident happened etc."
Yes he could have, but having been in the position myself, you are always told to provide no comment, until you have actually prepared something to say. As you said, when you have a tv crew with a camera in front of your face, its very hard to think of what to say, so its best to say nothing at all. If you say something wrong the legal implications will be negative.
Thats all I meant by that he acted professional, he'll probably provide a press release in the near future.