mm43, there is one significant difference between the towed array setup you describe and a plane crashing on the surface. That's the thermal layers that reflect sound. Once you get below them it's all fine. But anything above the layers is reflected and ducted all over the place, fairly efficiently, with a lot of dispersion and multiple path issues.
(I should have mentioned that in my prior note. I was trying to keep it short.)
{^_-}