Airline engineer, not aircrew, a bit puzzled.
Given that aircraft will, on occasion, leave the runway for a variety of possible reasons, and sometimes at high speed, why is anyone surprised that an incident turns into a disaster when a "small ravine" gets in the way? What is that "small ravine" doing there?
Would I be wrong in stating that this is not the only recent accident that ended much more badly than it might otherwise have done because of what it encountered after leaving the runway? That A340 at Toronto went into a ditch, burned and everyone involved was very lucky. I believe that was the second time that, that scenario unfolded at Toronto.
What are the airport regulations on quality of terrain, covering of drainage ditches, gulleys, hummocks, trees, roads, fences etc. What I would like to see is a large expanse of soft sand, covered drainage culverts and short grass (long grass burns too much). Why is this sort of thing not as obvious as having fire engines?