Swiss fighter jet goes missing, defence ministry suspects crash

Bern: A fighter jet belonging to the Swiss Army went missing over the Alps on Monday. “The plane is believed to have crashed,” the country’s defence ministry said in a statement.

“While participating in a training exercise with another plane, the radio contact with the pilot of Single-seater F/A 18 C was suddenly lost around 1600 hours and the plane was declared missing,” a defence ministry official said.

The search operation was initially carried out by two helicopters which were forced to land after not much time owing to the unfavourable weather. The defence ministry of Switzerland said it would, however, resume the flights as soon as the weather conditions allowed. Meanwhile, two teams comprised of mountaineering experts and rescue workers were taking forward the search operation.

Other highlights:

• A large-scale rescue and search operation was underway.
• All flights from Bern’s Meiringen airbase, where the missing plane took off from, have been grounded until Tuesday noon.
• The crash site is suspected to be in the centre of the mountainous country and is extremely difficult to access.

Also Read: Emirates flight crashlands at Dubai airport damaging craft