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Swedish fighter jet crashes after bird collision

Published

6 years ago

August 21, 2018

A Swedish fighter jet crashed after colliding with a flock of birds in southern Sweden on Tuesday , authorities said , adding the pilot ejected safely.“ It was a bird collision and the pilot had to eject, ” Johan Lundgren, spokesman at the Swedish Armed Forces told AFP .

The pilot was on a training mission in a Jas Gripen aircraft manufactured by Swedish aerospace company Saab .

The accident happened eight kilometres ( five miles) north of a military air base near the southern Swedish city of Ronneby.
The pilot was taken to a hospital for a check -up .

Authorities said the accident happened in a forest area and no casualties were reported .

Sweden reports about 400 incidents where planes collide with birds every year , Charlotte Billgren at the Swedish Transport Agency told the TT news agency .

Saab Defence and Security is a major exporter of military material such as the Gripen fighter jet to the Czech Republic , Hungary , South Africa , Thailand and Brazil .

In 2017 , a Gripen fighter jet crashed in Thailand during an air show . The pilot died.

And in 2015 , another jet leased by Hungary skid off the runway at a Czech airbase and was completely damaged .

AFP )