I must admit I do find it strange some of the reactions to the aircraft Captain being killed on here, simply because he wasn’t killed performing his duty.
As said already, he is a combatant and regardless of if he is flying or not, he it still fair game.
If you cannot take out the aircraft, take out the pilots which is the better option, take out an aircraft on the ground you can stick the pilot in another aircraft, take out the pilot and then those aircraft cannot fly and not only that you in effect take out the whole crew.
The reaction is almost as if the pilots amongst you are realising you could be killed before getting airborne and you see that as bad form.
There was a reason in Germany why they used an APC to transfer Sqn Pilots to the aircraft from the hard, it was because they were the weakest link.
The way they can target the likes of an APC or hard these days, it would probably be smarter to have the pilots dispersed in HAS or wherever with their aircraft, who knows they may do that these days.
More on his shooting.
https://twitter.com/Tendar/status/1753917748600504553