The exploding ships bug is well known and can affect both Terran and Kilrathi vessels. Back in the day it was considered an exploit. It happens when you go from one NAV point to another but you're still 'looking' at any ship outside the new NAV area. For instance you can blow up pursuing fighters by flying away from them and watching them out of the rear window. Or you can just use F9 to object view an any capship whilst holding down your afterburners and flying away. At times this causes seemingly random explosions during dogfights where you move out of range of your enemies. It doesn't seem to affect wingmen, but it does affect escorted Draymen, the Tiger's Claw and other friendly capships.
I forget whether or not the bug translates on to the Amiga platform but seems unlikely given that the engine was rebuilt.
The problem did however carry over into WC2. The only difference being that in the second game you get the kills credited to your character.