At 9000' and ATC give him an airfield 10 miles away??
Glide ratio about 9:1 I believe?
9,000ft = 1.48nm.
Therefore at 9:1 the glide range in still air is 13nm, or at 10 miles in still air, you'd be down - flown well - to about 2000ft.
If it was downwind, that should be pretty straightforward to fly.
Not that I wouldn't have preferred something a bit closer meself !
Cirrus company teaching as most people know is to just pull the handle - although I can't help feel that he might have done himself a favour by first positioning the aircraft so it would come down in open ground, rather than into a connurbation. That option must have been there for him.
Other side of the coin - nobody's dead, and Cirrus can build him another aeroplane.
G