I wouldn’t state that with any certainty. They touched down 1500m down the runway with little to no braking or reverse thrust. The ending may have been less violent but the outcome may have been the same. I’d rather go from blunt force than being burned alive if a wing ditched and it rolled.
Let’s wait for the investigators. It’s not good to fixate on this outcome.
This is the landing of United Airlines Flight 232 in Sioux City, Iowa in 1989. It hit the runway very hard, tumbled, broke, left the runway, and burned, but encountered no significant non-frangible obstacle. Of 296 passengers and crew on board, 184 (62%) survived. It is reasonable to assume that given the absence of other significant non-frangible obstacles beyond the ILS mound that loss of life would have been low and potentially zero.
