When you put blocks that are affected by falling if there's nothing below them, they DISAPPEAR until they hit the ground
1 block, 10 blocks , 10000 blocks, literally doesn't matter what height are they falling from, it will occur everytime !!!
So far I've tested on Sand, Red Sand , Gravel , Concrete Powder and they all do the same thing.
HOW TO REPRODUCE :
Just put a block that is affected by gravity somewhere where it'll fall (down).
Unable to reproduce in 1.13, the blocks fall to the ground normally for me. Try forcing a crash report by holding F3+C for 10+ seconds and attach the file (from .minecraft/crash-reports) here.