courtney (post 842) - You think it's stupid to believe an airline can glide 9 nm miles from 3000'?
Map out the distance flown from engine failure to landing. Without knowing the exact touchdown point and flight path, but reasonable estimates available from flightracking websites and photos, it looks like they flew almost exactly 9 n.m.
Peak altitude was 3400', glide distance about 10.5 st. miles. Sorry, but "9 miles from 3000' " is a fine estimate.