I just flew a balloon defense mission.  After coming out of warp near the second waypoint, the flight leader started a slow circling descent from around 8000 feet.  The rest of the flight followed, right down to the ground, where three of them crashed for no reason - there was no flak and no enemy contact. 
  
This left my wingman and I.  I warped to the next waypoint and came upon an enemy flight.  I turned to follow them, but my wingman stuck to the flightplan, so I alone dived on what turned out to be a flight of 5 unarmed aircraft.  They politely stayed in level flight while I shot three of them down, but with no witnesses.  :cray:  
  
Is there any explanation as to why the AI would 1)crash into the ground, and 2)fly straight and level while it gets shot to pieces?  Anything I can do to fix it?