The other thing about the OP's note is the pilot asked for circle to
land after flying the ILS to what sounds like MDA before breaking out.
Fate punching one's ticket happens, but those of us who fly SEL in IMC
often (at least if they were trained as I was) fly the approach
expecting to fly the miss and treat finding the runway as a happy
accident. We'd just not consider requesting circle to land under a 200
foot ceiling. Also, for those without a lot of 'actual' time, take that
"expect to fly the miss" seriously. My experience is that about 5
percent of my IMC approaches (I flew a lot in New England, often to
uncontrolled airports) were misses, and expecting to "fly runway
heading to 1100 feet, right turn" etc is a lot less confusing than
expecting to see the runway and then having to consult the approach
plate at a faily busy time.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it(and await the grammer police
with a grin on my face, but Mooney jocks usually have a grin on their
face).