That seems entirely possible, and more likely also if this was just a false event meant to create a distraction that was massively exaggerated with the multi day frantic search and suspense of the 100 hour count down of oxygen left. James C said kind of pretentiously in one of the interviews that he “already knew” the hull had collapsed catastrophically when they lost coms and tracking at the same time, and there was a sound consistent with hull collapse picked up on navy sub-tracker mics with more advanced classified technology.
I can agree that would seem like the most likely explanation based on that evidence, but even knowing that search and rescue protocol would still be to search for survivors even if there is only a 1 or 5% chance anyone was still alive. That would of course only be true if anyone was even on the craft when it collapsed, if that is even really what happened or this is all made up by “They,” that is Mr. Globaloney?