Can the server return Connection timed out when sending mail, but letters reach?

Question

Email

Weird question, I agree.
But I ran into this moment:
Through the applications, the functionality of responses to applications is organized. Sending goes through SendPulse'a smtp. I get email statuses using their great SMTP WebHooks .
Everything has been working for a long time, well and stable. But today, when sending a letter, I received the status "Awaiting delivery" (Connection timed out H=mail.site.ru [11.11.11]: SMTP timeout after RCPT TO:)
Suspecting something was wrong, he told the manager to call the organization where he sent it and clarified that there they have mail)
He was told that the letter was perfectly received and everything works.
Here is the question. What then do I see for "timed out", unless of course the company did not deceive, and in fact they did not receive anything, why did the letter reach? Or, for example, could SendPulse misunderstand something?

Answer 1

With a timeout on RCPT TO, the letter cannot reach, because it has not been submitted yet. The letter can reach if there was a timeout after DATA.
Either the status is displayed incorrectly, or this is some other letter

Answer 2

Well, while I looked, while they called it and managed to reach