the proximty ...of any known black holes to earth would have to be reason number one....and THE ONE that Id think most adults would know.
Well, say it was one of Hawking’s quantum black holes, since a stellar-sized one would certainly destroy the earth. The tidal forces would rip the plane to shreds and spit most of it out as hard gamma rays, looking much like a nuclear explosion. Black holes don’t just pull things in without a lot of messy radiation.