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Naturally the Russian technocrats tried to blame it on the Americans. I guess managers are managers no matter were they are located. How do you say cover your a$$ in Russian?

There was also the real possibility of crew error, and on Sunday, the head of the corporation that builds and operates the Soyuz spacecraft, Yuriy Semyonov, suggested that “one of the Americans” had pushed the backup-mode activation button. Bowersox was the only American who had any active role in the descent (it was astronaut Donald Pettit’s job to follow the checklists), and he denied touching the button — which, he joked, was being guarded carefully by Russian cosmonaut Nikolai Budarin. “We don’t think we did anything to cause that to happen,” he later said to a NASA press official.

The three men, who knew they were far off course, were able to open the hatch themselves and get out; it’s a much easier drop to the ground when the capsule is on its side. They then waited two hours to be spotted by a search plane, and several hours more for the arrival of the first helicopter.

That part could have been worse, they could have been bobbing around on the briney for those several hours + 2. I wonder what the biggest "miss distance" of the Mercury/Gemini/Apollo programs were. I don't think Apollo ever missed by much, but I can remember how exciting it was the first time one of them (Gemini?) came down close enough to the recovery ships that those on the ships could see the main chute once it opened. Even showeded on TV, IIRC.