I don't think that was the pilot who said that - he looked a little beaten up.

Now I only watched once, but this is what I remember ...

It won't lift off, settles, finally gets off into ground effect but won't climb out of it.

Ham-handing out of ground effect doesn't work either. Hmmm.

Plenty of places to set down, but no, lets hold it here a little while and see if we can climb. (He tried ham-handing it a couple of times more, I think).

Hmmm, still no climb - and here is a stand of trees. I'll just start a turn back.

Oh, yeah, I'm really low with no reserve performance. BANG.

I just can't believe (actually, I can ) just how many safe landing areas (plus a really long runway) he overflew with a known performance problem.

Methinks he got away with this before. This day he was just a bit heavier and/or it was a bit hotter.

Had this been me, heaven forbid, I would have staggered back to the wreck, drained some fuel, lit it off, and tossed both of those cameras into the flames. Along with my license.