Some days the hardest part of flight training is the landing. On Thursday evening, 22 October 2026, two U.S. Air Force pilots in a T-6A Texan II decided, with expert advice from the ground, that the safest way to finish their flight was not to land at all.

The pair ejected near Seguin, Texas, about 35 miles east of San Antonio, just before 6 p.m. local time, after their trainer showed unsafe landing gear indications. Both were recovered safely and were being checked by medical personnel. Joint Base San Antonio described the ejection as “a controlled bailout”.

What happened near Seguin

According to the Joint Base San Antonio release, reported by KSAT and CBS News, the crew received unsafe landing gear indications and talked the problem through with experts, who recommended that they bail out rather than attempt a landing. Reports also describe a hard landing at an uncontrolled airfield; the base has not explained the exact sequence of events.

The Wilson County Sheriff’s Office responded to the area around Nockenut Road and Lynn Drive and said there was no threat to the public. The pilots’ names and conditions were not released, and the cause of the landing gear indication is under investigation.

KSAT 12 reports on the ejection near Seguin, 22 October 2026.

Why bail out of a working aeroplane?

A gear problem sounds minor next to an engine failure, but in a small trainer it can turn a routine landing into a gamble. If the gear will not lock down, a belly landing risks the aircraft flipping or catching fire on the runway. When experts on the ground judge that risk to be higher than the risk of ejecting, a planned bailout over open country, at a chosen speed and height, is the conservative option.

The T-6A gives its crews that choice. Both seats in the tandem cockpit are Martin-Baker zero-zero ejection seats, and the canopy is fitted with a detonating cord so the seats can fire straight through it.

The trainer behind every new Air Force pilot

The T-6A is the first military aircraft most Fuerza Aérea de los Estados Unidos pilots fly. The 12th Flying Training Wing, which says it “develops the next generation of Air Force aviators and enlisted aircrew”, uses it to train pilots and instructors at Randolph.

For the two aviators near Seguin, the training day ended with the one lesson no student wants to put into practice. The good news is that the system worked: two parachutes, two pilots on the ground, and an investigation to find out why the gear would not cooperate.

A close look at the T-6 Texan II, the Air Force’s primary trainer (Hasard Lee).

Sources: Joint Base San Antonio news release (22 Oct 2026), KSAT 12, CBS News, Fox San Antonio (KABB), 12th Flying Training Wing