Very very populated B with very few places to put it down, and if you did have to put it down in a footie field or something like that they would have needed more control over the aircraft than they did. Their normal landing area at the airfield is on Twy A, and they missed that by some 600-700m or so. (but to be quite honest, i'm not sure what point on the airfield they were actually aiming for) So methinks a small unpopulated area would've been wishful thinking. Also the position they were in under radar control would've put them at between 3000 and 3500ft. Would that also mabye have been a governing factor in their decision to return to the airfield?
The approach to the airfield was made flying sideways as they could not fly in a straight line nose first (please excuse the ignorent lingo from a non chopper pilot, not sure what the correct terms are)
T