Emergency personnel tend to a service member who fell from the rafters of the Alamodome while participating in a rappelling demonstration before the UTSA-Navy football game Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026.
To the astonishment of the crowd, a serviceman fell to his death from the rafters of the Alamodome Saturday night during a rappelling demonstration before a UTSA-Navy football game.
The 170-foot vertical descent by soldiers in fatigue gear was part of a pregame ceremony at the annual Salute to Armed Forces and Veterans game.
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The soldier, who belonged to Detachment 2 of the Air Force’s 6th Combat Training Squadron, dove to the ground while descending the rope in front of 23,000 spectators. Emergency personnel carried him from the field on a stretcher to an ambulance waiting outside the Alamodome.
Hours later, the Air Force announced the man had died at a San Antonio hospital. “The incident is under investigation,” a spokesperson for Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, the training squadron’s headquarters, told the San Antonio Express-News. “More information will be released as it becomes available.”
The soldier has not been identified, nor the hospital where he died.
A total of four members of the Air Force detachment were scheduled to rappel onto the field from the ceiling of the cavernous Alamodome before the pregame coin toss. About halfway down the descent, one of the four accelerated quickly and crashed onto the grass. UTSA personnel formed a semi-circle around the motionless soldier for approximately 10 minutes while medical personnel tended to him.
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Emergency personnel tend to a service member who fell from the rafters of the Alamodome while participating in a rappelling demonstration before the UTSA-Navy football game Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026.
The soldier’s condition was not made public when the football game began as scheduled shortly after 7 p.m. The Air Force did not announce his death until early Sunday morning. UTSA defeated Navy, 38-34, in the first-ever meeting between the teams.
The 6th Combat Training Squadron prepares tactical air controllers to integrate with Army and Navy units and direct air and artillery strikes from forward locations on the battlefield. As part of their training, they learn to use a “fast rope” from structures 15 to 30 feet high and practice rappelling from helicopters hovering 100 feet or more above the ground.
This video shows staff practicing both skills.
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The Air Force squadron’s Detachment 2 operates out of Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland’s Chapman Training Annex and Camp Bullis, an Army training reserve in northern Bexar County.
Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones released a statement Sunday saying she was “deeply saddened” by the soldier’s death. “We will keep his family in our prayers. May perpetual light shine on him,” she said. Jones is an Air Force veteran who served in Iraq and later served as deputy secretary of the Air Force under President Joe Biden.
UTSA said in a statement:
“We are deeply saddened by the incident that occurred early in tonight’s game. Our deepest thoughts and prayers are with the affected Soldier, his family and his fellow service members. We recognize that members of our university community may be emotionally affected by this incident and are activating wellness services to support our faculty, staff and students.”
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UTSA encouraged students needing assistance to contact the University Crisis Hotline at 210-458-4140 or access resources through the TimelyCare app. University campus employees can request assistance through the Employee Assistance Program at 800-451-1834, and UT Health employees can receive assistance through their Employee Assistance Program at 800-356-3549.
It is common for the U.S. military services to stage flyovers and other displays of prowess that attract audiences at sporting events.
On November 9, 2023, members of the Army in combat gear from Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, rappelled from the rafters of the Enterprise Center in St. Louis to deliver the puck for a hockey game between the St. Louis Blues and the Arizona Coyotes. The personnel came from the Sapper Leader course, which trains combat engineers and tactical leaders in demolition, mountaineering and other skills.
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On November 10, 2024, elite Soldiers from the Army Warrior Training Center at what was then Fort Moore (now Fort Benning), Georgia, performed a 250-foot rappel from the ceiling of the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans before a game between the New Orleans Saints and the Atlanta Falcons.
No one was injured during these demonstrations.
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