Have just read the said article,
What most of these pilots don’t x-referenece to their basic training principals, are that during an emergency landing in a single engine aircraft (whether it be Cessna or Piper), if you fly through a pair of trees and the wings are broken off, the aircraft will slow down; potential and kinetic energy and all that good stuff.
However, in reality the bastard is lucky if he\she can even steer the thing where they want it to in the first place.
But, thinking about a fuel “hazard” (and detaching the wings because of it, hey) would be the last thing on a pilots mind in this situation. (Called tunnel vision) Great thought and accolades to all the CRM of it; if true we have another “General Chuck Yeager” in our making
At this point in time it would be totally on “self preservation” as with any human being faced with a “do or die” situation. What would you do in car accident if death stared you in the face, hey, try and survive!!!!
Apologies for being so rhetoric, but in this case, both the pprune pilots and the journalist need a fact update.