I shot a couple of newbs last night and both times I got the same behaviour: I got a HUD message saying that I'd destroyed them but the ship was still floating around and I could still land hits on it although its armour never decreased.

It floated around for probably a minute and then disappeared.

Like I say it happened twice once in B8 and once in Dau K10 I think. Everything else behaved as expected - PVP kill registered, faction standing, strike force etc ...

That's not a bug, the newbs probably disconnected when they died or were lagging horribly at the time you shot at them. They get counted as dead for the server but the ships persist.

I've once - ONCE - seen a pilot retain control of his ship a whole minute after I got that message. over a year ago, and never could figure out what either of us did, but that was pretty hilarious.

but yeah, severe and sudden lag is the creator of many ghost ships.