United Airlines

Unless you have been living under a rock, you have heard about the United Airlines scandal. A newspaper, apparently by mistake, revived a seven year old article about the company going bankrupt. Of course, the company was only entering bankruptcy insurance which helps companies reorganise and cut staff with ease. It then left bankruptcy insurance in 2006. Recent changes have made bankruptcy insurance in America less appealing and as such this would be even bigger news.
Well some how this hick Floridian paper's Xnews was picked up by Google and was spread rapidly (In the new lingo it went viral). The result was a 75% drop in share prices. Likely because people are so sensitive to airline issues that the reactions are quicker and more harsh than in other industries.
Now we have a real Dog and Tail thing going on. Who purchased those discounted shares?
Could this be a super hostile takeover bid? Did somebody purposefully rerun that article after accepting a huge bribe so someone else could buy the stocks knowing the shares would eventually return to their previous levels? Is that possible?
Or, perhaps more believable, The company knew the article was untrue and took this opportunity to buy back as many shares as possible at the discounted rate only to issue more later. At which time we see the company increasing its capital base without diluting the stock pool.
I don't know what happened, legal or illegal, but somebody made a lot of money and I want to know who, as well as what the SEC is going to do about it.