I have saved the plane
At least half of it;]
Nice!
I did the exact same yesterday. My Japanese bomber was a flying fire ball, and I found out that fire really, really quickly break modules (and wings!!!)
I managed to land my fireball and denied the aa guy a plane kill.
(When my plane reappeared repaired, it was bugged and bounced like on a trampoline on it’s wheels, but I still managed to take off.
I felt like a real hot shot.

As for why your plane is only half, near the end of the war, it’s well known Japan lacked metal imprts to supply their war machine. They halved their production costs, super effective!
today i just manage to (somehow) land my burning plane too! even hit a tree on the way down. was expecting to blow up at that time.
it feels good managing to do that!
Now imagine my face when my entire cockpit turned into into the ghost verson mid flight and kept on flying. It was a bit sluggish as the plane was a bit damaged but it continued to fly.
Im not sure anymore if it was a crash with a palm tree or combat damage but having a ghost plane has its perks for sure. Sadly I didnt remember the key for screenshots…