You can dream up some imaginary sitiuations in which someone could be hit by an aircraft that had a properly setup failsafe, who might not have been hit if the aircraft instead gyrated all over the place with its engine still running ... just as you can conjure up situations in which someone is strangled by a seat belt or smothered by an air bag, who might not have been killed in a car crash had those safety devices not been used... the point of these devices is all to reduce overall risk, not eliminate it in 100% of cases. If we waited for a 100% guranteed solution, we would never have ANY safety rules or mechanisms in anything that we do inside or outside this hobby.
Before seat belts were the law people always talked about those who were thrown through the windshield before the car burned to a crisp. But those were rare and statistics have proved that more people survive with seat belts than after.
Did this aircraft have a back up reciever and servos?