This is a known issue, but I can confirm personally, yeah, it's happened to me too. I've mentioned it before and I'll mention it again, this happened to me on a scene where characters and cloth modifiers. The rest of the objects have remained intact.
Until recently, this issue didn't recur. When I opened my Highly detailed vehicle with 3DS Max 2018, Just one part of the whole mesh was affected. Again the rest remained unscathed. I've not been able to deliberately reproduce this though.
As to why it happens is also not under my knowledge. Perhaps @Alfred.DeFlaminis might be able to help you resolve this.
