Air Force instructor pilot killed when ejection seat activated on ground

An Air Force instructor pilot was killed Tuesday, when the ejection seat activated while the aircraft was still on the ground, the military branch said.

The unidentified pilot was assigned to the 80th Flying Training Wing at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas, the Air Force said in a statement to Fox News Digital.  

The pilot was inside a T-6A Texan II, a single-engine two-seat aircraft that serves as a primary trainer for Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps pilots. The ejection seat activated during ground operations, the Air Force said. 

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The pilot's name was withheld until notification of the next of kin. 

Ejection seats have been credited with saving pilots' lives, but they also have failed at critical moments in aircraft accidents, The Associated Press reported. Investigators identified ejection seat failure as a partial cause of an F-16 crash that killed 1st Lt. David Schmitz, 32, in June 2020.

In 2018, four members of a B-1 bomber crew earned the Distinguished Flying Cross when, with their aircraft on fire, they discovered one of the four ejection seats was indicating failure. 

Instead of bailing out, all the crew decided to remain in the burning aircraft and land it, so they all would have the best chance of surviving. The crew survived.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.