I'm no pilot but in that situation I can only imagine it's a case of "Keep her up as long as I can, try to find a clearing". Is the entire area as densely populated as it looks or could it be they were aiming for a clearing but sadly fell short?
A bit of a side-note - but trying to "keep her up as long as I can" is the perfect way to convert a survivable forced landing (a la Sully in the Hudson) into a fatal uncontrolled crash.
It's called "stretching the glide" - and one of the first lessons in flying is "Don't try it!"
With no power, the only way to "keep her up" is to swap airspeed for altitude. With two negative consequences.
1. The worst is that below a certain speed, the wing stalls and you drop like a rock with virtually no control. = smoking hole in ground.
2. Assuming you maintain enough speed for control, slowing up to "keep her up" is still exactly what will cause you to fall short. Slowing the plane up lengthens the time required to get to your "clearing" - but doesn't substantially increase the time you have available (since lower speed means less lift, so you sink just as fast - or faster). = landing with some control but well short of the clearing.
Any aircraft type has a known "Best Glide Speed." Go faster than that and you won't glide as far - and go
slower than that and you also won't glide as far. If you can't reach a safe landing spot at best glide speed - you can't reach it at any other speed, either.
Lots of unknowns still - but I suspect if total power loss occurred, the crew simply ran out of altitude before they ran out of obstacles. Sully himself would tell you he and his passengers were
very lucky that the city over which he had his dual engine failure had a nice big wet runway right through the middle.