I believe the fellow meant the planes were transferred within the government, then diverted by the Forest Service to firefighting companies.

I have no idea if it was loaded. The plane seemed to be flying almost straight and level. It was at low altitude, maybe 500 feet at most. The airspeed seemed reasonable, hard for me to gauge. That it was straight and level would seem to indicate it was on the run-in, rather then on the way home.

The wings gave simultaneously, both of them buckling upward, hinging upward at the root. Fire then broke out where they gave, no doubt from fuel tanks and lines. That fire seemed to be out on the fuselage, anyway, but the time it hit.

It's hard to imagine an updraft having the effect of a 3.2 g maneuver, let alone a 4.5 or 4.8 maneuver. And an updraft would also act on the fuselage, mitigating the effect a bit.

The guy did seem knowledgeable re the maintenance, and was specific about needing maintenance at the wing roots. And he could well have meant, in fact did, that once those planes left the Air Force they would not have been maintained the way they had to be. For a national media interview, he was pretty passionate.

And that's more than I know.