You're right that its explicitly identified that way but that's because it isn't obvious, if it was obvious they wouldn't have needed to be explicit about it.

For example, retreating soldiers are absolutely still combatants but on the other hand sailors on a life raft are not. Is an ejected pilot like a retreating infantryman or like a sailor on a liferaft? The solution the drafters came up with is that he's a non-combatant while descending but once again becomes a combatant once landed.