The remains of a Swiss army fighter jet that disappeared over the Alps on Monday have been located in central Switzerland, but the pilot is still missing, the defence ministry has said.
“On Tuesday afternoon, the crash site was located,” the ministry said, adding that the plane had been spotted from the air in a hard to reach area of the Susten Pass.
Difficult weather conditions had so far made it impossible to reach the wrecked plane on foot, it said, adding that mountaineering experts would be lowered by helicopter as soon as conditions allowed. A search for the pilot was continuing, the ministry said.
The F/A-18 C single-seater aircraft had just taken off from the Meiringen airbase in the central canton of Bern on Monday afternoon when radio contact with the pilot was suddenly cut.
The incident is the latest in a string of crashes to befall the Swiss airforce.
In June, two Swiss Tiger F-5E fighter jets collided during a training flight for an airshow in the Netherlands in June. One of the aircraft crashed and burst into flames, but the pilot ejected to safety.
During another training exercise last October, an F/A-18 crashed in an uninhabited part of France’s eastern Doubs region.
No one was hurt on the ground but the pilot was slightly injured after ejecting from the plane.
