The actual reason for the wooden slats was to prevent the join between the two pallets from hinging upwards during ground handling. There are also possibly other reasons, but who cares? Whatever they were, this restraint system seems sufficiently flawed to produce fatal results.
I am not just complaining on pprune. I have also emailed my concerns to the military facility that designed the particular loading and restraint system. If there is another similar accident, I am prepared to make a copy of my email available to victim families and insurance companies.