The Air Force says an instructor pilot was killed when the ejection seat activated while the turboprop aircraft was still on the ground at a Texas military base. The instructor pilot was in a T-6A Texan II at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas, when the seat activated during ground operations on Monday. The pilot was taken to a hospital and died Tuesday. The pilot’s name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin. In 2022, the T-6 fleet and hundreds of other Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps aircraft were grounded after inspections revealed a potential defect with one component of the ejection seat’s cartridge actuated devices, or CADs.
