On that night of the flight from Montreal to Singapore, planefags were watching a couple of AF1 type planes over Europe. One was coming out of Ramstein headed south (towards Crete, maybe turn to Aviano), another appeared to have landed in Aviano. (No. Italy) Press reports later said AF1 fueled in Crete. Crete, I think is a NATO base, while Ramstein & Aviano are USAF.
Great circle route Montreal to Singapore would be over the north pole, I would think. Newark to Singapore using that route was longest commercial flight, 18+ hours. Fuel amounts needed to be carried and length of circulated air exposure were downside, for commercial flight. Sauce: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore_Airlines_Flight_21
Note: Singapore back to US East was over Alaska, making use of prevailing winds.
So yeah, lots of misdirections were probably occurring.