To land where? It was an emergency situation. The carrier was the only safe landing zone for hundreds, if not thousands, of miles. The choppers had been flyi

To land where? It was an emergency situation. The carrier was the only safe landing zone for hundreds, if not thousands, of miles. The choppers had been flying at or above max capacity for long distance, and would have been low on fuel already. Fueling them on the flight deck would not only have taken more time but presented its own significant risk of fire particularly in the confusion and nonstandard ops environment.