Memory serves me that it was a hydraulic failure of some kind....but that was a very long time ago....it could have been as you mention.
The Lifting hardware was the same as used for the O-1E Bird Dog (Think Cessna 175) as we were told.
The right rear part of it snapped apart and the Bird pitched up and rolled to the right....with the initial upset causing a rather fast violent oscillation that led to a hurried conversation about jettisoning the thing....but we got it calmed down and carried on.....after calming our own selves down in the process.