Valerie Schmitz, the widow of an F-16 pilot killed after a failed nighttime landing, has filed a federal civil action lawsuit against defence companies, alleging that the ejection seat was a forgery.
According to Air Force Times, key components of the pilot's ejection seat may have been fake, according to an Air Force inquiry into a fatal fighter jet crash in 2020.
First Lieutenant David Schmitz, an F-16 Fighting Falcon pilot at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina, passed away on June 30, 2020, as a result of an ejection seat malfunction while he was attempting to leave a failed nighttime landing. He was 32.
In the months after the disaster, the Air Force conducted an official investigation and discovered that the electronics inside the seat had been poorly constructed, with scratches, uneven sanding, and other flaws.
According to previously unreported slides provided to Air Force Times, that sparked concerns at the Air Force Research Laboratory, which prompted a de...
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