Accidents and Crashes

In all, four Gripens have crashed, two of them before the delivery to the Swedish Air Force. This is by no means an extreme number for this kind of aircraft; as a comparison, the test series of Viggen saw seven crashes. However, the first two Gripen crashes were recorded on video and ended up being shown many times on Swedish national television. As a result, a large part of the Swedish public got a skewed perception of the aircraft and came to consider Gripen to be dangerous and unreliable, as well as a waste of tax money and a general embarrassment. The aircraft has yet to completely shed this undeserved reputation, although the successful sales of the plane to several foreign militaries have perhaps helped restore the Swedish public's trust in the plane.

* In February 1989 the first prototype crashed on its sixth flight when landing in Linköping. The accident was filmed by a crew from Sveriges Television's Aktuellt. The pilot remained in the tumbling aircraft but was not injured.

* In August 1993 a Gripen crashed on the central Stockholm island of Långholmen during an air show. The pilot, the same man as in 1989, ejected safely. No one on the ground was seriously injured.

* In September 1999 a Gripen from airwing F7 at Såtenäs crashed into lake Vänern during a dog-fight exercise. After passing through the wake vortex of the other plane, the aircraft abruptly changed course and the pilot got a warning from the ground-collision warning system that a crash was imminent. In accordance with the flight instruction he therefore left the aircraft and landed safely by parachute.

* In June 2005 a Gripen from airwing F17 at Kallinge apparently ceased to obey commands from the pilot. After attempting to regain control while the aircraft slowly descended, the pilot finally left the aircraft and landed safely by parachute. The cause of the accident is still to be determined.