Plane's on fire, land ASAP, and I don't mean "nearest suitable"...ASAP means land on the desert below you, rather than out of control attempting to reach an airport...in the Valujet example, if the crew had done that (and I have flown with that Captain and she was "top notch") maybe the outcome would have been the same...but if only 20 out of the 100+ on board survived, well...
Or even consider ditching? Which is what an RAF Nimrod did years ago. I recall that the inquiry said that if they had not done so the results would have been catastrophic - all crew members survived.