Not true.
If you get lost and know that you have only a few pounds of fuel left, you burn that off so when plane crashes it doesn't fire up the neighborhood.
The pilot followed SOP for ground safety.
He found a good spot, used up or dumped remaining fuel, bailed out.
Checklist followed.
Checklist followed.
Maybe for a world war II fighter. Not for a state of the art aircraft. There are multiple independent radio and nav systems in such a plane. All thats needed is a simple VOR or ADF receiver and the most rudimentary map to find your way to a suitable airport.
Further, look at that field. Flat as a pancake. He could have bellied it in more safely and perhaps salvaged the plane. But then, if he gets disoriented immediately after take off as the story reports, he probably didn't have the skill to slide in safely either.
Oh, well, this sh*t happens even to our pilots occasionally.