[ME]: More on the EP-3

[Robert "J." Hansen <rjhansen@xxxxxxxx>]

The Pentagon is now saying that one wing was pretty much destroyed.
Specifically, one engine was disabled; all the control surfaces on the
wing were destroyed.  Under such conditions, according to the Pentagon,
a water landing would have been tantamount to committing suicide.  They
simply would not have been able to bleed off speed as they approached
the water; the pilot was wrestling with the plane the entire time, so
there's a good chance a wing would have hit the water and forced the
plane into a death cartwheel; and they also had no altitude indicator to
tell the pilot when he was about to hit the water.  (When all you can
see is water and sky, there are -no reliable visual cues- to indicate
altitude.  Not even clouds.)

In short, the pilot didn't ditch the plane at sea because he wanted to
live long enough to see his family again.