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Is that possible that the plane was causing momentary signal loss?
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Yes. It's called "aircraft-induced multi-path" or "airplane flutter". Signals are bouncing off the aircraft and are arriving at your antenna in such a fashion that they are interfering with reception of your primary signal.
Comprehensive engineering example:
http://2003.iccas.org/Full_Paper/air...2003_5(19).pdf
On analog systems, such signal impairment would usually cause either ghosting or picture rolling, depending on the severity of the impairment. On digital systems, once the impairment crosses the threshold of viewabilty, reception failure, characterized by anything from mild pixelization/audio blips to a complete loss of audio and video, will occur.
Four and 8-bay UHF antennas seem to work about the best since they have a narrow vertical beamwidth. Much depends on the elevation angle of the aircraft (relative to your location) as to whether or not the reflected signals can be sufficiently nulled.