A Finnish F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet crashed Wednesday near the Rovaniemi airport in Finland’s Arctic north, but the pilot was rescued after ejecting, the armed forces said.
The crash occurred “in the Rovaniemi airport area” around 11:00 am (0800 GMT), the military said in a statement.
“The aircraft crashed during a rehearsal for an airshow,” Timo Herranen, commander of the Finnish Air Force, told AFP.
Herranen said “the pilot luckily was able to eject from the aircraft” and had only sustained “mild injuries”.
Herranen did not wish to comment on a possible reason for the accident “at this stage” and said an investigation was underway.
According to the military, there were “no injuries on the ground”.
Dark smoke could be seen rising from the scene and several emergency vehicles were dispatched to the area.
Witness Mika Lehtiniemi saw the fighter jet in the sky just before the crash as he drove along a nearby bridge.
He told Finnish broadcaster YLE it was flying unusually low over the Syvasenvaara residential area before it appeared to stall, its nose turning upwards.
“The plane stood up very strongly and turned on its back, as it were. Then a few seconds passed and I saw a cloud of black smoke. I didn’t see the fire, (just) the black horrible smoke,” he said.
Airport operator Finavia told AFP it did not expect civilian flights to be affected by the accident for the time being, with the next flight not expected for several hours.
A Nordic defence ministers’ meeting was taking place in Rovaniemi on Wednesday. The ministers were watching the exercises at the time, but were in a safe area far away from where the accident occurred.
“We did not see the accident, but we were informed immediately,” Finnish Defence Minister Antti Hakkanen said in a post to X.
The Finnish air force’s fleet of F/A-18 Hornets were delivered by Boeing between 1995 and 2000 and are due to be decommissioned by 2030, replaced by F-35s from rival US aerospace giant Lockheed Martin.
