I think this young pilot made some very basic mistakes that night - why was the gear down when he ditched
Bryan Abraham answered that from the ATSB report. The impact forced down the gear. "There but for the Grace of God, go I", springs to mind about this whole event and indeed I think many people are being wise after the event. The pilot must have done a first class job of ditching in the dark. The rate of descent at impact must have been perfect and IAS perfect for ditching. With absolutely no forward vision even though the landing lights were on but not displaying the waves, from what I can guess his ditching technique was spot on.
Earlier he was given a met report indicating cloud base 6000 ft which tied in roughly with the weather the day before. He believed it and let's face it, so would have most pilots at the time. Also given that a diversion to Tontouta would have him arriving there with eight minutes of fuel, no wonder he discarded that idea. So would have most pilots.
We should not shy away from giving the man the credit he richly deserved; and that is he made a successful ditching on instruments under conditions you would never try to create in a simulator because no one would believe you.