NNCO said
For A320 Crew - Would you have worked your way through the ENG DUAL FAILURE (fuel remaining) checklist or would you switch/jump at some point to the DITCHING procedure.
Fly the airplane first and try to get the engines started.
In this case, the Capt resorted to the old maxim 'fly the airplane'. From what I have read, the F/O worked on the engine restart checklist. The ditching checklist is designed for a planned ditching, not for this type of event.
Second, no one listens to the pre-takeoff briefing, especially the part about the life jackets and even less so when departing from inland cities such as LGA or CLT. One can imagine that at least for the next few weeks, anyone with a sense of geography will study the cards a bit more when departing cities near large bodies of water (lakes, gulf, etc) or rivers.