what could he have done differently?
Erm, don't know I wasn't there. But surmising if he had infact previously landed then took off again to burn off excess fuel, I think perhaps throwing out a crew member and some equipment to lighten the load might have been an option. (On the ground that is)
If he didn't previously land, perhaps risk red lining the torque gauges for a few seconds more in order to save a life? Hell if I wanted to save a life whilst landing and someone shone a laser at me I would perhaps look the other way and pedel the nose around so the light was coming from behind me?
Who knows, a man's life was at stake here. Cutting and running was one option though I suppose.