@Roninmission:
Looking at pilot Dan Griffith's resume I'd think twice before second guessing his decision making!
Absolutely. My first thought when I heard of this was that the problem must have been serious and urgent.
Even as an amateur flyer my first assumption was that they don't just let anybody fly those machines.
I hope that the pilot is doing well. It's also weirdly interesting that they'll have to do a modern style accident analysis on such an old machine.