Hungarian air force Gripen jet crashes, pilot ejects safely, prime minister says

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — A Hungarian military pilot ejected safely when his fighter jet crashed on Monday, Prime Minister Péter Magyar said.

The Swedish-made JAS 39 Gripen came down near the city of Szolnok in central Hungary “for reasons that are still unknown,” Magyar wrote in a post on Facebook. An investigation into the incident is underway and Minister of Defense Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi was on his way to the scene, he added.

Ruszin-Szendi said the pilot was “alive and has not sustained any injuries.”

“It appears the pilot did everything he could to ensure the crashed aircraft landed on military property,” Ruszin-Szendi said in a video on Facebook, adding he was traveling to the crash site with the chief of staff of the Hungarian defense forces.

Mihály Győrfi, the mayor of Szolnok, told local media that the pilot “was probably training as usual” at the helicopter base just outside the city, and confirmed that there were no known injuries resulting from the crash.

Hungary has 18 JAS 39 Gripen fighters, 14 of which were acquired through a lease-purchase program launched in 2001 and four others that were ordered in 2024 and joined the fleet this year.