some guyon the deck
why wouldn't the radio altimeter work? lack of electrical power? hitting the thing with a spanner?
the radio altimeter is probably as reliable as the radio (and they used it to call ATC), and the flight controls.
And of course, if they had been without a radio altimeter, and on a glassy surface, I too would just set up a min descent and hope for the best
but they weren't.
quite frankly, I might have gone for interstate 80...but I wonder what the bridge toll would have been.
;-)