No, I'm pretty sure what triggers it is the manta itself. I do have a Mac, if that were to make any difference, but I doubt it. It starts as soon as someone gets in a the defective manta and does not stop until that person gets out. I think it must be the manta itself because, even on the same map, only certain mantas have it. It probably is unimportant, but I have noticed that it is spining slightly faster than the manta's normal turning speed. This is one of the reasons I think it may be a defective manta that is placed in the editor. I am always on high physics so I will try changing that, but I still think It is a bug that came with the game and not certain maps.
By memory, here are a few maps that have it:
ONS-Pipeline (tower power node on red side only)
ONS-VolcanoHigh (one of the mantas at the red core)
AS-SkyRace-FinalVersion(all of them (Grrrr..))
I have no doubt that there are many more.