Weird jet story - Miami airport

I used to own a book about supposedly true stories of aviation-related hauntings/paranormal incidents called Ghosts of the Air by Martin Caidin. I lost the book in a move several years ago and am unable to provide exact dates and information here, so please forgive me. An internet search has yielded nothing either as my memory is too vague.
Anyway, here’s the incident recounted in the book that I’m curious about:
A jet was on approach to Miami airport during, I believe, the late 1970’s or early 1980’s. At some point ATC lost radio and radar contact with the jet for several minutes. It was assumed the jet had crashed into the ocean, but helicopters dispatched to the area where the plane was thought to have gone down found no wreckage. Suddenly, the plane reappeared on the radar and the pilot came back on the radio as though nothing was wrong. When the plane landed safely at Miami, everyone was detained on board while the crew was questioned. At some time during this immediate investigation, it was discovered that all the watches worn by those on board the plane were behind for exactly the number of minutes the plane was “missing.”

Does anyone know about this story? It sounds a little far-fetched, especially the part about the watches, but Caidin gave an exact date and the flight number, making the story sound a little less anecdotal. Still…wouldn’t this have made big news and/or still be discussed in paranormal circles today? I’ve never heard anything about it other than reading that book. Who’s got the SD?

Well, I guess the first things we need are the date and flight number. After that, it’s a simple matter to check the NTSB accident/incident report records. [mulder]They don’t have a record of any missing time, so they must be part of the conspiracy![/mulder]

I can think of a couple of ways (all non-paranormal) that a plane could disappear from radar, then reappear. The wristwatch part, though, sounds like it was added after the fact to make the story sound better. If the pilot reported no problems with the plane, no injuries among the passengers or crew, and the incident looked at first to be caused by a glitch in the airport radar, why would they detain the passengers?

Could be an interesting book, but I sincerely hope Caidin wasn’t trying to pass off these stories as true.

–sublight.

You can buy the book at amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1880090104/qid=972963971/sr=1-2/103-6582145-9575814

Arjuna34