I would add to the above comment that it is unlikely that you could ditch a 777 in the open ocean which is subject to large swells without it breaking up on impact.
An ocean is very different surface to land on compared to a river....such as the Hudson.
On another topic:
I suspect Freescale is just "bigging up" the status of their 20 employees lost in the accident. They were probably just general workers rather than key executives/dept heads.
If one of our employees was lost then I expect my company would start pumping out the
PR about how essential they were and how it was a tragic loss and how we are all devastated: yeah I'll bet. Meanwhile back at the ranch the other employees would have already put in their CV's for the post and the company would actually be wondering whether we could do without the positions anyway.