US Air Force: 'Highly valued' pilot instructor dies after aircraft ejection seat activated while on the ground at Air Force Base in Texas

A US Air Force pilot instructor has died after the ejection seat activated in the training plane he was sat in activated while the aircraft was still on the ground. The accidental ejection took place at 1.55pm on Monday (13 May) at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas.

The victim was a member of the 80th Flying Training Wing, which trains pilots, and he died from the injuries he sustained. The accident took place when the ejection seat in the aviator’s T-6A Texan II training plane “activated during ground operations,” according to the military branch.

The USAF said Capt. John Robertson, an instructor pilot with the 80th Operations Support Squadron, was severely injured when "the ejection seat of the T-6A Texan II aircraft he was in activated during ground operations." Col. Mitchell J. Cok, the acting wing commander, said: “This is a devastating loss for Captain Robertson’s family and loved ones, and for the entire 80th Flying Training Wing. Captain Robertson was a highly valued airman and instructor pilot. Our deepest condolences go with all who knew and loved him.”

The branch is conducting an investigation into the accident. It comes after the Air Force temporarily grounded 76 of its Texan II aircraft over concerns of a potentially defective ejection seat part, during the summer of 2022. Breaking Defense later reported that two months after the planes were grounded in July, no faulty cartridges had been found.

Between 2000 and 2021, a total of seven mishaps occurred in T-6s, killing two T-6 pilots, according to Air Force data. The aircraft has a turbo-prop engine with 1,100 horsepower and is used in the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training programme which trains NATO combat pilots.