The 'shootdown' theory is based on the triumphal cries from a Fouga Magister trainer, without gunsights or ground radar, overheard by a US listening station in Cyprus some 3,200 miles away. He would have to fly some 130 miles to intercept an aircraft which might be over Ndola at midnight?
The DC6 took off from Kinshasa, elevation 790 ft. to land at Ndola, elevation 4,300 ft. Descending in the black to a minimal lighted airfield?
.No problem, we have 5,000ft to go.