Jim
I was astonished at the lack of precautionary planning prior to cutting an engine on a candidate during a check ride.
No where in the report is this mentioned. Are you referring to a different document. It is "normal" to give an applicant a simulated engine failure in a 293 ride. My guess is that there was a suitable landing spot, however, they may have been shocked at the fact that the engine actually quit and mishandled the procedure by trying to re-start rather than accepting the loss and flying to the spot. Again---this is just my best guess.