Since we all like technical details to be correct, hope you don't mind if I point out that "careening" is the process of dragging a ship out of the water so its hull can be scraped clear of attached marine life.
The word you're after is "careering" - to move in a rapid and uncontrolled way.
No, Beach used "careening" correctly. Your definition is also correct, and is a nautical term, but another definition is "to lean, sway, or tip to one side while in motion." Basically, the colloquial term implies a vehicle moving in an uncontrolled manner (appropriate for describing landing Su-25Ts piloted by rookies).
There's an interesting note on dictionary.com:
Usage Note:
The implication of rapidity that most often accompanies the use of careen as a verb of motion may have arisen naturally through the extension of the nautical sense of the verb to apply to the motion of automobiles, which generally careen, that is, lurch or tip over, only when driven at high speed. There is thus no reason to conclude that this use of the verb is the result of a confusion of careen with career, "to rush." Whatever the origin of this use, however, it is by now so well established that it would be pedantic to object to it.
I just love your stories man. Keep 'em coming. 
