It would be great if CH9 and the rest of the media held off going with the Hero Pilot caper until more is known.
The bloke did a good job by the sounds of it, and may well deserve the hero tag, but until an investigation finds out why the situation occured its a bit premature to speculate.
Many years ago a TAA F27 out of MEL had its rudder come adrift. The Melbourne media named and hailed the Captain as a hero after he elected to circle around MEL for a long time, burning off fuel to a minimum, before making a perfectly normal landing..
Only problem was TAA management didn't think he was a hero. They called him in and reamed him out for not landing ASAP. Had an engine failed while endlessly circling around , the lack of a rudder would have seen them go in like a dart. A point lost on your average media hacks.
It pays to get the full story before creating media heroes.