[Unsure] Stats/Kill Bug? Plane flaming in hangar counts as "Hit" ?

[lovewing]

I doubt this is a bug but instead probably some mechanic I don't understand:

I logged in and seen player xcas mention he flamed planes in the hangar and said he only got hits and not kills.

I had just logged in from coming from training server, I asked if he was sure it was fire and not brown smoke, he confirmed. What I did not confirm is if it was the more realistic looking flames or if it was the dark red/orangey older style graphic flames. On training server I had noted that when I caused a motor to emit the old style graphic reddish flames that it will give kill upon pilot despawning in hangar, no kill prior to that. I assume that flames should mean you would get a kill (more importantly remove the item from inventory) right?

I told him that I believe I read old post where staff said something about stats not being updated when it comes to some types of kills and that it just takes some time (maybe I am misremembering). Now I became curious so I wanted to ask here as I am thinking about trying to test it.

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Is this is a mechanic I dont understand? Thought i'd ask before spending time testing it to try to find out what happened.