US airman who died after rappel fall at a college football game in Texas is identified

The U.S. airman who died after a rapid fall while rappelling from the rafters of a stadium before a college football game in Texas was a 15-year service member from Georgia, according to the Air Force.

U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Ian Patterson died after being taken to a hospital following Saturday's fall at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Nellis Air Force Base said in a statement. He had been rappelling toward the ground when spectators watched him plunge to the field before Navy's game against University of Texas at San Antonio.

The military says an investigation is underway. The demonstration was part of a pregame program for the crowd during the annual “Salute to Armed Forces and Veterans” game in San Antonio.

“This tragedy is felt deeply across the 57th Wing,” U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Scott C. Mills, 57th Wing commander, said in a statement.

Patterson was a Tactical Air Control Party instructor assigned to the 6th Combat Training Squadron, Detachment 2, and served for 15 years, according to the military. He was from Fort Stewart, Georgia, and had numerous decorations and commendations.

A video of the fall that was posted on social media showed Patterson in combat fatigues quickly descending to the ground feet first. The fall occurred with fans in the stands and a band and cheerleaders assembled nearby on the field. He was treated on the field for several minutes and taken away.

The sister of Patterson's wife declined to comment.

Officials delayed the start of the game for about 10 minutes following the fall.

UTSA head coach Jeff Traylor said his team could see the effect that it had on the crowd of over 23,000 people as soon as players arrived on the field for the game, which his team won 38-34. Traylor said he had only been told there had been an “incident” that would delay kickoff.

“You could tell the energy was just gone,” he said. “It just really puts things in perspective. It really does.”

The American Conference, which includes UTSA, said in a statement that a discussion about whether the game should proceed at all had taken place between league officials, Alamodome management and local authorities.

At the time, the conference said, the military had not yet publicly confirmed the death. It made the decision to play the game “in accordance with conference bylaws” and support from other conference members.

“Respect for the family’s privacy and adherence to the military’s notification process guided the decision to mitigate speculation about the service member’s medical status and avoid additional distress for his family,” the statement said.

Patterson was one of four military service members who were scheduled to participate in the pregame rappelling demonstration.

According to an Air Force website, the service members who were participating in the rappelling demonstration were part of a team that embeds with Army and Marine units and helps to direct air and artillery strikes from forward ground locations.

Part of their training includes learning to rapidly drop by rope, sometimes from helicopters that are 100 feet (about 30 meters) or more above the ground.

Military rappelling demonstrations have been done at sporting events before.

In 2016, soldiers rappelled from the ceiling at a major league baseball game in Florida and in 2012, pararescue troops with the Kentucky Air National Guard rappelled down the side of the University of Louisville stadium.

Wilder is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Emergency responders react to an accident before UTSA’s annual Salute to Armed Forces and Veterans football game at the Alamodome, Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026 in San Antonio, Texas. (Cody Duty/The San Antonio Express-News via AP)

Emergency responders react to an accident before UTSA’s annual Salute to Armed Forces and Veterans football game at the Alamodome, Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026 in San Antonio, Texas. (Cody Duty/The San Antonio Express-News via AP)

Emergency responders react to an accident before UTSA’s annual Salute to Armed Forces and Veterans football game at the Alamodome, Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026 in San Antonio, Texas. (Cody Duty/The San Antonio Express-News via AP)

Emergency responders react to an accident before UTSA’s annual Salute to Armed Forces and Veterans football game at the Alamodome, Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026 in San Antonio, Texas. (Cody Duty/The San Antonio Express-News via AP)

MIAMI (AP) — More than 100,000 people from Ukraine and Sudan can stay in the United States without immediate risk of deportation, the Department of Homeland Security said, in what amounts to a temporary reprieve after their right to stay in the country was set to expire Monday.

Temporary Protected Status was set to end Oct. 19 for about 101,000 Ukrainians and 1,800 Sudanese. But DHS said an announcement “will be made at the appropriate time.” Until then, the department said in a written statement, Ukrainians and Sudanese in the U.S. covered by those temporary measures “retain protection.” The Department did not indicate how long they could stay or when a final announcement would be made on their status.

DHS did not respond to a question about whether they can keep their work permits, but TPS generally allows people to work while their protections remain in effect.

The decision Monday marks another incident where the Trump administration, which has previously sought to end these temporary protections from deportation and send people back to their home countries, has allowed people covered by the temporary status to stay in the country but without giving any guidance as to how long.

Yuriy Boyechko, CEO of Hope For Ukraine, a nonprofit that provides humanitarian aid in Ukraine and helps resettle newcomers in the U.S., described the government’s announcement as “last-minute patches.”

It is a “bandage that has been placed on a wound that does not solve the real issue,” he said. “It’s time for U.S. to come up with some normal path to permanent residency for all these people,” Boyechko noted. He emphasized that they cannot safely return to Ukraine.

Andrew Arthur, a national-security and immigration expert at the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington think tank that favors lower immigration, said the government will eventually decide but faces no deadline. Until then, nothing changes, he said.

“It’s simply going to be an extension until it is a termination,” he said. “It’s beyond cavil that both Sudan and Ukraine are experiencing ongoing armed conflict, and therefore the secretary is well within his authority to continue TPS for each of them."

The Trump administration has already terminated TPS for more than 1 million people from 13 countries, including Venezuela, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Afghanistan and Syria.

But in a change in practice roughly a month ago, the administration kept protections in place for nearly 200,000 Salvadorans whose TPS was set to expire Sept. 9. In that case they also said that they were going to make a decision at the appropriate time and that in the meantime, people from El Salvador could continue to work and live in the U.S.

Activists and a bipartisan group of lawmakers have been raising the alarm over the upcoming deadline for TPS to expire for Ukrainians, arguing that conditions remain unsafe for them to return home amid the war with Russia.

Ukraine was first designated for TPS in April 2022, following Russia’s full-scale invasion two months earlier. The Biden administration subsequently extended the designation, most recently in January 2025, when DHS authorized an additional 18 months of protection through October 2026.

The TPS program for Sudan was established in 1997, and since then, successive U.S. administrations have extended it due to the armed conflict and political instability that have plagued the African nation.

The decision Monday comes two weeks before the Nov. 3 midterm elections, when Trump’s hard line immigration policies will face a test at the ballot box.

The U.S. Congress created TPS in 1990 to prevent deportations to countries suffering from natural disasters or civil strife.

It allows people already in the country to remain and work, for renewable periods if the homeland security secretary determines conditions are unsafe for their return. But it doesn't give them a pathway to permanent residency.

Supporters say that using this tool protects people from being returned to dangerous situations and that uprooting people covered by TPS after years of living in the U.S. is cruel. Critics, especially in the Trump administration, say successive administrations have extended these protections for years regardless of what has happened in the home countries.

Federal rules say TPS is automatically extended for six months if the secretary doesn’t make a determination at least 60 days before the designation expires.

Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, noted Ukraine and Sudan meet the legal conditions for TPS to be extended.

“It is not safe for these families to go home,” Vignarajah said.

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Associated Press reporter Rebecca Santana contributed from Washington.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security sign, is seen during a news conference at ICE Headquarters, Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)