I was in a tempest, having a nice sortie, I dove on a La7 from about 19k to 16k...  I picked up some speed, no creaking or anything and just straight up exploded.  Not sure as to the speed I was goin because I was taking the shot, I'm sure pretty fast (although throttle was cut, probably was in a 70 degree dive).  
Never happened to me before, wings ripped off sure, but never just BOOM back in the tower.  Is this normal or a bug?  The La7 was LLB, he never fired a shot and he got the proximity kill on me, so it wasn't some wierd lag thing.  
LLB thought it was as strange as I did.