It may not have been planned at all but that if he was saved by the SEALS he decided to stay "dead", that would be a plausible option too
However, it's indeed weird to stage your death with two women involved of which one we don't know why.
Also in the publication of the whistleblower it was said in the official report that Carolyn was 3 months pregnant. So that would be a bit of a risk to fake your death that way.
I wonder if she either was pregnant, if it was planned staged before the crash or after the crash if he survived.
It's still a mystery. We also don't know if there are other advanced ways to stage it , so they wouldn't be in this particular plane in the first place.
It was also said in the official not public report that he did fear being a target and so he took the route along the coastline instead of directly over the sea for that reason.
So many mysteries, but I guess it may be possible to stage your death in all sorts of ways we don't know about are possible.
Like to hear some possible scenarios though