A Hungarian Air Force Gripen fighter jet crashed near the town of Szolnok on Monday, with the pilot successfully ejecting from the aircraft, prime minister Péter Magyar said.The pilot survived and was taken to hospital, while no other injuries or damage to civilian infrastructure were reported.“For reasons that are not yet known, a Gripen fighter jet of the Hungarian Defence Forces crashed a few minutes ago near Szolnok. The pilot successfully ejected. An investigation is under way, and the defence minister is on his way to the scene,” Magyar wrote on Facebook.Hungarian defence minister Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi later said the pilot had survived and was taken to hospital by ambulance.“The pilot is in an ambulance, he is alive,” Ruszin-Szendi said in a Facebook video.The PM also said, “According to a preliminary report, there were no injuries and there was no harm in civilian infrastructure.”The Hungarian army also has an air base near Szolnok. AP quoted Szolnok mayor Mihály Gyorfi as saying the pilot “was probably training as usual” at the helicopter base outside the city, while confirming that there were no known injuries from the crash.Hungary, a NATO member, operates 18 JAS 39 Gripen fighter aircraft based at Kecskemét. Fourteen were acquired through a lease-purchase programme launched in 2001, while four additional Gripens ordered in 2024 joined the fleet this year.The Hungarian Gripens regularly participate in international operations. In the second half of last year, the aircraft also took part in protecting the airspace of the Baltic states. The cause of Monday’s crash remains unclear.Hungary previously experienced a Gripen accident in 2015, when a fighter crash-landed in central Hungary because of a technical fault. The pilot ejected and the aircraft was later repaired.
