There is a much more logical explanation. Aliens space monsters could find nothing good on BBC 2 that night so they lured the aircraft out over the sea, used a magnetic suction space beam to grab the aircraft, opened the canopy, unbuckled the pilot and took him away for purposes unknown but are no doubt of a perverse sexual nature, climbed in, frigged about with the instruments to make it look like bored kids had done it and then carefully closed the lid and dropped the plane into the sea.
Happens all the time in outback Australia............