"Kyle Boatright" wrote in message

I guess I see it differently... What he needed was a direction to turn
and he didn't get that immediately.

At the first indication of a problem, he lost his situational awareness,
stopped thinking, had no plan to revert to, and called for ATC to save his
bacon. In short, he panicked. Training should have either caught this
propensity, or obviated it. In any event, he had at his disposal all the
information (and, I think, altitude) needed to save himself, but he
panicked. A sad case, 'tis true, but there's no one here who needs to be
told that the penalty for unpreparedness can be severe.