A Finnish Air Force F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet crashed near Rovaniemi Airport on Thursday lunchtime. The pilot was able to eject, suffered only minor injuries and was taken to the Central Hospital of Lapland for further examination. There were no injuries to people on the ground.

According to the Finnish Air Force, the flight had begun at 10.45 a.m. and was in preparation for an aerobatics demonstration. The aircraft with the registration HN-409 crashed on the edge of the runway a few minutes after take-off and skidded into a section of the construction site for the future F-35 infrastructure of the airbase (-> Finland opts for F-35 fighter jet) – an area that is undeveloped and was deserted at the time of the crash.

Rescue units from the Finnish Air Force and the airport operator Finavia were quickly at the scene of the accident. When the emergency services arrived, the wreckage was in flames but was quickly extinguished. The pilot landed on the airport grounds by parachute and was able to get into a rescue vehicle on his own.

The crash site was cordoned off by military police and police. Civilian use of the airport remained unaffected, only the “Lentokentäntie” access road was closed for a short time so as not to hinder the rescue operation. There was also no relevant damage to the F-35 construction site that would affect the ongoing work.

The incident is currently under investigation, and according to the Finnish Air Force, the official cause of the accident has not yet been determined.

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Most recently, the USA also lost two F/A-18sOn Tuesday, an F/A-18 Super Horner crashed into the sea from aboard the “USS Harry S. Truman” for reasons as yet unexplained. The week before, the aircraft carrier had already “lost” a fighter jet of the same type in the Red Sea.

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