Fear of Landing

How many hours did the pilot have? How many recent hours? How long had it been since an instructor reviewed his pilot skills? (In the US, a requirement for a biennial flight review by an instructor came in about the time I got my PPL, but the instructor who did mine took it pretty lightly.) This would be tough situation for anyone; for a non-commercial pilot with no other qualified pilot on board, and possibly not a lot of recent experience (let alone practice for difficult situations), it's downright nasty. (I’m not surprised that a partial failure is more dangerous than a full failure; there are more decisions to make.) In this situation (so close to the ground) it's not clear that spending time on an engine-out checklist (except for what might have been in his head) is useful; it's easy to say that he should have been aware enough of his surroundings to put the nose down and land, but with someone behind him shooting video he might have been distracted — or had an ego problem.

The recollections afterward being at odds with what happened isn't surprising; IIUC, serious injuries can scramble just-passed memories.