A sad, and believable story, and not the only one I have heard like it. A few things have flapped loose on me over the years....
However, the story is not really about an oil door adrift, but a pilot who did not continue to fly the aircraft adequately. Pilots would be alarmingly amazed at how much can be wrong with an aircraft, and it remains landable.
I never forget the photos of the damaged aircraft, which have returned from battle with all kinds of airframe no longer there. All those aircraft made it home in the control of a pilot, who did not allow layers of horrifying experiences from distracting him from his most important task - flying!
Aviate - Navigate - Communicate! Do as much as you can, but never stop doing the first, to attemp the second or third!