These multi engine accidents make me think about training, and the need to do it often. I don't know anything about the organization that owns the B-17, but I see a similar pattern of behavior as the local Twin Comanche crash a couple years ago:
https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/195708.
Maneuvering with engines out is a challenge, and as we can see has serious consequences. One thing I did figure out in my training is that an unfeathered engine is much less burden and danger than shutting down an engine giving you power.
Without being in the plane and knowing all that was going on, hard to say a different runway was a better option. Sometimes it might be better to bank into the good engines and turn 270 instead of a 90 to keep your bank in, but we can not know-
Maybe we can learn, and those of you with time in big birds like these can help us understand lest we make the same mistakes.