I dunno. Alot of poo pooing going on here, but this sounds at least as plausible as alot of other suppositions I have heard. Scary as hell, and possible if you ask me!
If this plane, ‘crashed’ in the Indian Ocean, there would be a debris field that could not be missed. If the plane was flown onto the water, then the players in this encounter may have been expecting to be picked up by somebody without leaving a debris field.