Werbil
My point exactly. It may very well be choices made earlier that drove the outcome of the landing and no one including Chuck Yeager may have been able to do better than the pilot did. We simply don't know. Perhaps he could have turned towards the field earlier (perhaps he already did?), perhaps he could have traded speed for height (perhaps he already did), perhaps he could have restrated the engine (perhaps he tried), perhaps he could have used flaps (perhaps he tried and they jammed?), perhaps he took 10 or 15 seconds before his brain accepted the power loss, during which time he lost speed and altitude (perhaps he responded immediately).
My point is we simply do not know, so perhaps the end was a lucky outcome as remoke says, due to a whole heap of holes in the swiss cheese lining up and the pilot not connecting the dots and making the right decisions. Or perhaps he acted as good as anyone possible could and the outcome was as good as anyone would have achieved under the circumstances.
I think we all agree here we need to learn from it so as you say we are not stuck with mediocrity, but lets base it on facts not assumptions. Thats all I am saying.
Cheers
CB