A person’s decision making process changes when under stress. Far fewer options will even be considered.
The most likely option chosen will be something that has done before. Any tactics that had been used before would probably be considered, if it’s not been done before it likely will not even come to mind.
in any situation where we have things to achieve, we
do not have infinite amounts of time and usually have
a strong sense of diminishing returns (see section on
Making decisions). In making sense of things, we usually
stop when we have enough information to decide on
a course of action that seems plausible. Our preference
is for a working level of understanding rather than a
search for absolute truth. For example, when faced with
uncertainty or too much information, an Officer of the
Watch (OOW) will simplify their information needs to
support a decision that seems workable in the time
available. This may or may not turn out to be sufficient
to deal with the reality of the unfolding event.
That from the MCA - The Human Element a guide to human behaviour in the shipping industry
The link was posted by @Tellarian on this thread: Karl Weick - An Analysis of the Tenerife Air Disaster
Had the captains practiced grounding the boats in shallow water before then incident then that would have greatly increased the likelihood that grounding short of the launch area would have come to mind in an emergency.