Judging by the distance from the airport to the beach, and where the engine failure would have happen, he would not have had much time to worry about the airframe, I think people are more worried about saving their own life, and their passengers life, this is a fairly primal instinct, so loads of todwash what you are saying here about saving the airframe.
I once many years ago had engine giving up on me during climb out, I managed to get enough altitude to make 180, and land with tail wind, probably touch down at 80 kts, while this was at an uncontrolled airstrip, with gliders operating out of the airfield during this time, I just told everybody on the radio to get out of my way, as the engine twice had died on my during the initial climb, and I was not going to waste my time to find out if it would last a whole circuit. Not one second did I have time to think about saving the airframe. I have to seriously ask the question, do any of you guys really fly?
It is around 5 Nm from the airfield to the beach, so he must have been to low to be able to return to the airstrip, and this again would have again given him very limited options. That he only hit 2 shows that the beach was almost clear, with limited time to decide he made a choice hoping to save his and his passengers life.
The result was of course tragic, and he will undoubtedly have to live with this fact for the rest of his life, but for some of you guys almost proclaiming that he should have been the hero and been a kamikaze pilot is just extremely dumb, and it's so easy to write that while you sitting in front of your PC, on the ground, not facing this issue in REAL life, when time is of the essence, and at one stage you have to be committed to your decision, and you will have to live the consequences of it, one way or the other.
As they say, it's better to be judged by 12, than carried by 6.