^^^ If your assumption that an immediate return would work then proved to be wrong after you had committed to the turn then this could have killed hundreds of people. That is a massive gamble to make without taking 30 seconds to think about it and assess the situation by which time the decision is made for you, I am sure if it was flat land/water between them and the airport as opposed to one of the most densely populated bits of land in North America then a turn may have been attempted I suspect.