in fact even STILL had NWWW as an alternate up their sleeve.
If this is the assumed case, then the conclusions you could assume for the accident was an attempt to get visual by letting down over the water or ducking under the minima (CFIT) rather than a planned and controlled ditching.
Think about it, why would you ditch if you still had alternate fuel on board?
I note with interest that the "Checklist" posted from the Flight Safety Foundation that there is no reference for the flight crew to don life jackets either before or after ditching.