On the 26th of May, wednesday morning one F-5 of the Swiss Air Force (German: Schweizer Luftwaffe; French: Forces aériennes suisses; Italian: Forze aeree svizzere; Romansh: Aviatica militara svizra) crashed near Melchsee-Frutt which is a mountain resort village in Switzerland. The pilot balied out in time and is uninjured, according to the official statement.
Absturz eines Tiger F-5 der CH Luftwaffe in der Region Melchsee-Frutt. Pilot konnte sich rechtzeitig mit Schleudersitz retten und blieb unverletzt. Weitere Informationen folgen.
— VBS – DDPS (@vbs_ddps) May 26, 2021
Some photos emerged in the “Swiss Air Force Fans” facebook group. One shows the crash site and the other is from a webcam from the region. According to the latest one F-18 flew over the crash site not long after 9 o’clock. According to scramble.nl the F-5 in question has the registration J-3089, which flew several times with the swiss demo team Patrouille Suisse in the past.
The Swiss Defence Ministry confirmed the follwoing:
At around 9 a.m. today, an Air Force F-5 crashed near Melchsee-Frutt. The pilot was unharmed. The Tiger F-5 took off from Payerne and was on a training flight as a sparring partner for the Air Force’s F/A-18. Military justice is currently investigating the cause of the accident.
Heute gegen 09:00 ist ein F-5 der Luftwaffe bei Melchsee-Frutt abgestürzt. Der Pilot blieb unverletzt.
Der Tiger F-5 war in Payerne gestartet und befand sich auf Trainingsflug als Sparringpartner für die F/A-18 der Luftwaffe. Militärjustiz untersucht zurzeit die Unfallursache. pic.twitter.com/UO1K0MEdkl— VBS – DDPS (@vbs_ddps) May 26, 2021
Main photo for illustration