Now I've heard everything. Of course they kept it in the air, they were trying to make it back to Haneda, in the knowledge that the airport could actually deal with such a landing.
Yes, they were trying, but that was impossible given the completely degraded controls and lack of training to deal with a non-functional hydraulics system. They never even got the plane pointed back at Haneda for more than a brief period. The ultimate outcome was a crash survived by, apparently, many of the passengers, who subsequently died due to exposure and the effects of their injuries.
It hardly seems controversial to point out that if they had crashed closer to a roadway like one of the ones they must have passed over en route to the actual crash site, at least some of the people who died thanks to causes other than the actual crash might have lived. If they had crashed earlier in the day so that JSDF rescue forces could reach the scene before nightfall, then some of the people who died thanks to causes other than the actual crash might have lived. If they had crashed at a lower, warmer elevation, then some of the people who died thanks to the crash might have lived. And all of this leads to the conclusion that an earlier crash would, in fact, have been better than trying to keep the plane in the air at all costs.
So they ran the scenarios with B-grade crews then?
No, they ran them with four or so. Statistically, this isn't much of a sample, B- or A-.
First the crew is criticised for maybe not wearing oxygen masks, and now for keeping the thing in the air too long? Is there something in the water in some places that causes people to try to degrade heroic actions and attack people when they're too dead to fight back?
They were obviously great pilots, I'm just suggesting that this might, in this
particular circumstance, have been counterproductive. There are plenty of accidents where trying to stay in the air
is counterproductive--for instance, US Airways 1549, where the water landing was clearly very preferable to trying to stay in the air to make it back to LaGuardia--how is it an "attack" to point out that this looks very much like one of them? Of course pilots are trained to try to stay in the air, but that's not always the best course of action, even if it means a crash.