Garpal Gumnut
The whole hoo hah about flying over a populated area is just so much rubbish!! The aircraft performed an OEI approach, big friken deal! Big news item, they fly on one engine, the second engine did not fail.
When an airliner declares a PAN the captain basicly follows the safest most logical route for him, his F/O, his crew, and passengers, and lastly his aircraft. Consideration about people on the ground is way down the list, as it should be.
The area you fly over has no bearing on the decision making process with a simple OEI approach, or for that for any QRH procedure, granted these guys had a bit more of a handful, but the aircraft was not in jeopardy, so it is a non issue.
The crew did a good job of getting it back safely, just as a vast majority of well qualified crew would have done, ie they did their job, nothing more and nothing less. They did what they were paid to do.
In the final wash up there may some egg to wear on face about the walk around, people make mistakes.
Enough about flying over populated areas. I have done a couple of OEI approaches in anger and I can very honestly say I did not give a single seconds thought about people on the ground, my brain space was fully occupied with the job in hand. You see if the captain is very very selfish about these situations and concentrates on saving his own ass, you will generally find most of the passengers follow closely behind, and everyone on the ground have no idea about what is happening, much like you Garpal!