Can the enemy destroy their own distress beacon in a downed UFO mission?

Question

Playing a downed UFO mission (surprisingly I've only gotten one and I'm basically at the end of the game) and I was rushing to get to the distress beacon with four turns left - we're right outside the UFO doors and I end my turn, then Bradford comes on next turn saying "looks like the beacon was destroyed" etc. but we haven't even gotten IN the UFO yet?

So I'm guessing a pod or something destroyed it, but I've never seen that happen before - I noticed that a Chryssalid popped up on the enemy turn and disappeared, is it possible they burrowed INTO the UFO and destroyed the beacon? I honestly can't figure out what just happened (though I'm not complaining)

Answer 1

Since you were near the end of the game when this happened, it is possible a Sectopod or Gatekeeper accidentally destroyed their own beacon while moving around inside the UFO. This has apparently happened to a few people, according to posts in this thread.

The original post:

Its no wonder the aliens are losing. They allow Gatekeepers inside UFO's. It pretty funny to watch a Gatekeeper move through a UFO. It pretty much trashes everything. My team was suppose to deactivate a distress beacon. Well the Gatekeeper did that portion of the mission for me.

A response:

Sectopods are the best for that. During patrols I've seen them walk into (through) buildings and walls, totally destroying them. Not the best unit in the world for defending a base.

Another user reported a Sectopod doing this in this thread:

Sometimes the aliens will even do it for you. Why they let Sectopods inside I'll never know, but they wreck [things] with every step.