Fighters circling at min. altitude..., Bug? Exploit? Options

[Redroach]

Yes, this happened to me several times now... Fighters from an enemy CV dive to minimum altitude and are able to stay circling there seemingly forever... I've yet to see such a plane running out of fuel and dropping into the water.
It seems to me that there is a bug involved which gives planes at minimum alt unlimited fuel in certain situations. Moreover, they seem especially hard to shoot down, too, regardless of fighter tier, pilot level etc.

I've seen several CV captains using this in a pretty exploitive manner to tie up my fighter squads for long periods of time. Is this a known bug? Has anyone had similar experience? I suppose this is considered exploiting and is punished accordingly, right? (it definately should be!)
If that is the case, how am I supposed to report those exploiting people? Screenshots don't describe the whole picture, of course..

[harryg]

Has anyone had similar experience?

Yes I do.
I was wondering several times about a local-squad still "up in the air" long time after later startet loacal squads ran out of fuel.
Didn't just recognize under which circumstances that happens. I'll keep an eye on that low level thing.

[burnstreet]

I had it happen to my T3 fighters once or twice, only at min altitude. Can't say anything about their fighting skills though, there were no enemy CVs alive by that time. It seems like they never got the "finally out of fuel" event that makes them die.

[nesomumi]

i can confirm this problem, and i should say that it is present for a long time (more then 2 mount)

[Franciskop]

Yes, I had experienced those "unlimited fueled fighters" myself. I think it´s a bug more than a exploit.

[Ausputzer]

ive got a similar problem, that a squad splits when they run out of fuel or i commanded them to come back. then 1 or 2 single planes staying of this squad circling unlimited till map end. this squad is then totally blocked till someone shoot them down finally (this is really annoying, just good that i have 7 fighters)

[decibel]

I heard that this bug shows up when your fighter flies around (without any target) and while he runs out of fuel and fall into the water an enemy plane comes into fighter's "attack zone" so we can say that enemy plane "catches" such a falling fighter.

But it's just an possible explaining

[Redroach]

Yes, I had experienced those "unlimited fueled fighters" myself. I think it´s a bug more than a exploit.

yes, of course, it is a bug. However, I can't confirm the view that it happens randomly, without the possibility of influencing it.
I've seen it several times now that people deliberately lower their planes near the end of their "lifetime" to tie up my planes for longer periods of time. This clearly constitutes the act of exploiting, in my opinion.