Anyway, perhaps the actual pilots here will permit some
speculation. The eyewitness reports, which are of course notoriously inaccurate (as I see one guy determined that something might be wrong not by the explosions, but by the favt his cows were acting oddly
) suggest engine problems, followed by a stall/spin into a large field.
Of course, this may be a million miles from the truth.
True or not, in this situation, I can very easily see the temptation to try and keep the plane in the air. It's not a total engine failure, where the forced landing in a field would be obvious, but critically there may not be enough power for level flight. The fact the engine still turns over may be enough to tempt a pilot to hang on in there, rather than putting it down. I know I'd find the decision very difficult.
Do we perhaps not give enough emphasis to the
precautionary landing in training? I know that it was never mentioned in mine, and in a borderline case, it could be a very difficult choice to make and might not even be thought of. However, I've recently read a number of cases where it has saved people.