Looks Can Deceive.
With reference to the woman who may have seen the flight from a boat. I've been around aircraft all my life, but back in the 1990's, an odd incident occurred which illustrates a point;-
One summers afternoon, a friend rushed into my house to tell me to 'come and see the plane on fire'. Hastily going outside, my perception was of a light-aircraft at perhaps 500 - 800' agl coming towards me soundlessly. I could see the flames licking around the fuselage. However, after perhaps 15 secs, I realised that something was very wrong with my perception. There was still no sound, and the a/c wasn't any closer.... I then realised that the a/c was MUCH further away and very high. Later, radio and TV reports told of people about 70m away reporting it as 'overhead.....so it was very high. Many thousands of people saw it. (ATC at Birmingham reported no plot. There was much speculation, UFO, SR71, Aurora, you name it, not that it's relevant here.)
What was so amazing was how convincing the a/c was at looking much MUCH closer. It had something to do with the speed of the movement of the flames.
Whilst I'm not supporting her report directly, I am saying that, in clear air, flames, even at a great distance can look MUCH closer. My point is that a seasoned observer can be deceived, then it may explain a 'lay' witness not describing that which we 'expect' them to see, as I can attest.