If you’ve ever seen a James Bond movie, you know never to touch the big red button. The one that says “Eject.” Well, one member of the U.S. Air Force’s 104th Fighter Wing apparently knew double-0-nothing about such gadgets.

A viral cellphone video shows an F-15D Eagle fighter jet taxiing past other airplanes and along the runway at Barnes Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts. But the closer you look, the more surprising the scene is. The F-15’s cockpit is missing its canopy. The metal-and-glass piece is balanced on the wing of the taxiing plane.

As the camera pans back behind the plane, it shows a service member lying in the grass by the runway. They are rolling around on the ground and appear unable to stand up.

The 104th Fighter Wing releases a statement on the premature ejection

The 104th Fighter Wing is a unit of the Massachusetts Air National Guard. Its statement admits, “A ground mishap involving an F-15D Eagle aircraft and two members of the 104th Fighter Wing occurred at approximately 2:05 p.m.”

Ejecting on the ground could be dangerous: The ejection system is engineered to blast you up and away from the plane. But at such low altitude, your parachute may not open in time to slow your descent. It’s a relief to hear, “Neither service member sustained any injuries as a result of the incident.” Perhaps the person on the ground was tangled in their parachute, or still strapped to their chair.

The Massachusetts Air National Guard isn’t taking any chances. “Wing leadership initiated a safety standdown of all flight operations… After a 36-hour standdown, flight operations have resumed… The incident remains under investigation.”

This isn’t the first premature ejection in fighter jet history. A defense company executive was enjoying a surprise flight in a French fighter jet in 2020 when he accidentally leaned on the eject button. The passenger floated to the ground, and the pilot was able to land that plane even without its canopy.

When the story of the recent Massachusetts mishap appeared on an Air Force service member Facebook group, the caption suggested it had occurred during an “incentive flight.” That’s just a flight in which a non-pilot gets to enjoy some time in an aircraft as a reward for exceptional performance in their own duties. You can watch the video, embedded below: