Wondering about how much time they had?
If in fact the situation became known at 2.0 statute miles out and they averaged a ground speed of 150mph, they'd have had 48 seconds before making contact with Earth. So with the different variables (who knows what the real average speed was), it's likely that they had somewhere between 35 and 75 seconds.
Not exactly a whole lot of time to develop and execute a careful plan.