An Air Force instructor pilot was killed Tuesday when his ejection seat activated while the plane was still on the ground, the military said.
The Air Force said in a statement to FOX News Digital that the unidentified pilot was assigned to the 80th Flying Training Wing at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas.
The pilots were flying a T-6A Texan II, a single-engine, two-seat aircraft that serves as the primary training aircraft for Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps pilots. The ejection seat was activated during ground operations, the Air Force said.
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A T-6A Texan II is used to train professional undergraduate pilots at Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma, in April 2018. On Tuesday, an Air Force instructor pilot in Texas was killed when the ejection seat of the plane he was on the ground activated. (Department of Defense)
The pilot’s name was not released pending notification of next of kin.
The ejection seats are believed to have saved the pilot’s life, but they also failed at critical moments in plane crashes, the Associated Press reported. Investigators have identified a defective ejection seat as a partial cause of the F-16 crash that killed Lt. David Schmitz, 32, in June 2020.
A team of T-6A Texan IIs fly over Texas. (Department of Defense)
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In 2018, four B-1 bomber crew members earned the Distinguished Flying Cross after they discovered one of the four ejection seats was malfunctioning as the plane went up in flames.
To give everyone the best chance of survival, the entire crew decided to remain in the burning plane and land instead of bailing out. The crew survived.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
