Pay load extenders or not, he wasn't heavy.
Why is it that pilots on this site are so eager to eat their own? I remember the thread about that poor kid in Namibia with the c210 that broke up in mid-air, half the posts where from other pilots certain that he was doing aileron rolls and deserved what he got. Someone even posted some story that the indigo track log proved he was doing aerobatics. That turned out to be bull****. And now people suspect that this pilot, who by all accounts was very experienced and conservative, negligently caused an accident that resulted in 9 people burning to death including himself. From what little information is available it looks to me that he did the best that could be done in an extremely bad situation and in the end he wasn't lucky. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
It's one thing to hear this crap from ambulance chasing lawyers and hack journalists, but i suspect the mathematically challenged pilots whining on pprune about overweight caravans, short runways, or whether or not CAA Bots approved an ape conversion?? would necessarily do any better when their engine packs up after take off.