Gripen plane crashes in Hungary

 

TT 

Published 10.44Updated 11.03

 

Hungarian Gripen plane in training. Archive photo. Photo: Sandor Ujvari/MTI via AP/TT

A Gripen plane has crashed in Hungary.

– We have no further information about what happened, says Saab's press officer Mattias Rådström.

The plane crashed on Monday morning for "as yet unknown reasons," writes Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar on social media. Its pilot is said to have survived by ejecting himself from the plane.

It is one of the Hungarian Air Force's Gripen planes. The crash occurred near the city of Szolnok in central Hungary, southeast of the capital Budapest.

"The investigation is ongoing and the Minister of Defense is on his way to the scene," announces Péter Magyar.

Saab has no further information to share about the circumstances.

– We have received information that a Gripen plane was involved in an accident. But we currently have no further information about what happened, says Mattias Rådström at Saab, but refers to the Hungarian authorities for the time being.

Then an investigation together with Hungary will show what happened, he adds.

Hungary has had Gripen planes in its air force for 20 years. The country received additional planes delivered from Saab as recently as this year. It is not clear from the initial announcement about the accident which Gripen model it is.

Saab's share started Monday higher, but lost all of that rise after the news of the Gripen accident in Hungary. Ten minutes after the news broke, Saab's share was down 0.3 percent.