“I almost believe the pilot tried to avoid a nearby neighbourhood, which is densely populated,”
Whatever the pilot tried or wanted to do mattered not. Plane went straight down in an out of control flat spin “death spiral”.
It mattered to the people he didn't kill.
Sometimes it happens that way. Francis Gary Powers died in a helicopter crash after running out of fuel. He was autorotating toward a spot where he expected to find a suitable landing site, until he noticed the spot was a baseball diamond with kids playing in it. He took an evasive maneuver that saved the kids but killed him.
A flat spin is not a death spiral. Two different beasties.