If you look at the AirBase, and / or CV and / or specific airplane calls in the game, they are oftentimes "Competent", or maybe "Veteran" at the most, for a CrewRating number, which would be 2 or 3. For the airplanes to "fly" realistically, they have to be "Elite", or "4" in the text files. This includes the ship or land AirBase they fly from, since that is where those planes acquire their "CrewRating" from. I mention this, because you say that after you dove, you then heard explosions. This could be the airplane crashing into the ocean... seriously. They are that bad at flying. What happens is they dive on your submarine, attempt to pull out of the dive, over-react, then "stall" their airplane, which then falls out of the sky. Turn on the external sometime and watch them. Try not to laugh too hard though. Even on "Elite" they will sometimes do that. The main disadvantage of setting airplanes to "Elite" of course, is they can then drop a bomb down the conn hatch like they're Luke Skywalker's cousin...
As for the not always dropping on their first approach, this can have to do with the Loadout for the airplane. Several things, the first being that it might be that the airplane's Loadout does not match between the cfg file and the eqp file. But that usually will result in a fail-to-respond issue, where the airplane just flies on by you, even if passing directly overhead. But other times, it is the order and type of the Loadout components. If a "DummyBomb" is the next weapon to use, all you will get is a strafing, and if they're out of 37mm ammo, well, they just pass right on by. If a regular "250kgBomb" is next in the list, then on the next pass they'll drop a bomb... imagine them also dropping a dye stick their first pass, and that's what they aim for the 2nd pass... or like KaleunMarco mentions, pass it off to an identification issue, with the navigator arguing with the pilot and co-pilot "I tell you, I ~know~ it was a US sub!", so they finally turn around and do another approach and attack run... lol
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