I wouldn't make something out of nothing. A relatively new pilot crashed his airplane. That is an unfortunate but common occurence. A lot of trainers end up as splinters.

Should you have yanked the transmitter out of his hands and tried to save it? Maybe but that's hard to say without actually being there and hindsight is always 20/20. I definitely wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

Was the guy really ready to fly the plane on his own? Maybe, maybe not. Perhaps he was nowhere near ready or perhaps he was and just got disoriented & lost the plane. Even very experienced pilots can lose a plane.