Monday's crash marked the 12th Hawk accident that has occurred since the Air Force began using the planes in 1980. The jet is located in a forested swamp area, with the nearest village about a half a kilometre away. Mäntylä said rescue services arrived very quickly.Īn area around the crash site has been cordoned off from the public, according to Herranen. According to the colonel, that was a safe height, as the ejection seats can even be safely deployed at ground level.
Mäntylä said the pilots ejected at a height of less than 500 metres from the ground. The 25-year-old student pilot and a 30-year-old flight instructor in the plane noticed an abnormal vibration, and issued an emergency message on the radio, as the aircraft was flying at an altitude of around 1.5 to 2.0 kilometres, he explained. The aircraft that crashed was in a combat training drill with another jet, while the other three planes were in separate training areas. Ejected at 500mĪt a press briefing early on Monday evening, the Air Force Academy's commandant, Colonel Vesa Mäntylä, said the accident occurred during the third and final round of a five-plane air combat exercise. The region's rescue services received a report about an air traffic accident in Keuruu just after 2pm, and nine emergency units were called to the scene. In a tweet at 3:21pm, the Air Force announced that both pilots had been found and sent for a health check. The plane's pilots were performing a flight training drill, according to Air Force Brigadier General Timo Herranen. The training jet crashed in the southern half of Keuruu, approximately 300 km north of the Finnish capital Helsinki, the Air Force said on Twitter. A Finnish Air Force Hawk training fighter jet crashed in Central Finland on Monday afternoon, but both pilots managed to escape in their ejection seats before the crash.
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