Accidents and incidents involving the JAS 39 Gripen
Encyclopedia
JAS 39 Gripen
The Saab JAS 39 Gripen is a lightweight single-engine multirole fighter manufactured by the Swedish aerospace company Saab. It was designed to replace the Saab 35 Draken and 37 Viggen in the Swedish Air Force...
is a fighter aircraft
Fighter aircraft
A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat with other aircraft, as opposed to a bomber, which is designed primarily to attack ground targets...
manufactured by the Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
aerospace company Saab
Saab
Saab AB is a Swedish aerospace and defence company, founded in 1937. From 1947 to 1990 it was the parent company of automobile manufacturer Saab Automobile, and between 1968 and 1995 the company was in a merger with commercial vehicle manufacturer Scania, known as Saab-Scania.-History:"Svenska...
.
As of May 2010, five Gripens were destroyed in crashes, two of them before the delivery to the Swedish Air Force
Swedish Air Force
The Swedish Air Force is the air force branch of the Swedish Armed Forces.-History:The Swedish Air Force was created on July 1, 1926 when the aircraft units of the Army and Navy were merged. Because of the escalating international tension during the 1930s the Air Force was reorganized and expanded...
. These aircraft included one prototype, one production aircraft and three in service with the Swedish Air Force. In addition, one aircraft was lost in a ground accident during an engine test, for a total of six hull losses. No lives have yet been lost in accidents with the Gripen. Gripens have been involved in a few aviation incidents also.
Crashes during testing
February 1989
On 2 February 1989, the first prototype JAS 39-1 crashed on its sixth flight, when attempting to land in LinköpingLinköping
Linköping is a city in southern middle Sweden, with 104 232 inhabitants in 2010. It is the seat of Linköping Municipality with 146 736 inhabitants and the capital of Östergötland County...
. The accident was filmed in a now famous recording by a crew from Sveriges Television's Aktuellt
Aktuellt
Aktuellt is a once-daily news programme produced by Sveriges Television and broadcast on its second channel, SVT2 in Sweden....
. The pilot, Lars Rådeström
Lars Rådeström
Lars Gunnar Robert Rådeström is a Swedish former fighter aircraft test pilot.-Crashes with Gripen:Rådeström was the pilot in the first two Gripens to crash, while the aircraft was still in the test series...
, remained in the tumbling aircraft, and escaped with a fractured elbow and some minor injuries. The crash was the result of pilot-induced oscillation
Pilot-induced oscillation
Pilot-induced oscillations, as defined by MIL-HDBK-1797A, are sustained or uncontrollable oscillations resulting from efforts of the pilot to control the aircraft and occurs when the pilot of an aircraft inadvertently commands an often increasing series of corrections in opposite directions, each...
(PIO). Extremely gusty winds were also a contributing factor.
August 1993
On 8 August 1993, a production JAS 39A Gripen (serial number 39-102) crashed on the central Stockholm island of LångholmenLångholmen
Långholmen is an island in central Stockholm, between Södermalm and Kungsholmen.Långholmen is a green oasis in the city, and a popular spot for walks, picnics and swimming. The small beaches, located right outside the former prison, are usually crowded in summer. However, up until 1975, Långholmen...
, near the Västerbron
Västerbron
Västerbron is an arch bridge in central Stockholm, Sweden. With a total length exceeding 600 m, 340 m of which stretches over water, it is one of the major bridges in Stockholm, offering one of the most panoramic views of the central part of the city centering on Gamla stan, the old town...
bridge, when the aircraft stalled
Stall (flight)
In fluid dynamics, a stall is a reduction in the lift coefficient generated by a foil as angle of attack increases. This occurs when the critical angle of attack of the foil is exceeded...
after a slow speed manoeuver during a display over the Stockholm Water Festival
Stockholm Water Festival
The Stockholm Water Festival was an annual street festival held in Stockholm, Sweden, in August from 1991 to 1999. The festival featured many activities in central Stockholm, but was eventually cancelled after the 1999 festival due to lack of funds....
. The crash was, like the first one, caused by PIO, and caught on film. The pilot — Rådeström again — ejected
Ejector seat
In aircraft, an ejection seat is a system designed to rescue the pilot or other crew of an aircraft in an emergency. In most designs, the seat is propelled out of the aircraft by an explosive charge or rocket motor, carrying the pilot with it. The concept of an eject-able escape capsule has also...
from the aircraft, and landed safely by parachute
Parachute
A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag, or in the case of ram-air parachutes, aerodynamic lift. Parachutes are usually made out of light, strong cloth, originally silk, now most commonly nylon...
, though he became stuck in a tree. The aircraft fell to the ground and caught fire on impact. Despite large crowds standing by watching, no one on the ground was seriously injured, and the fire was soon put out.
The aircraft had been delivered to the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration
Swedish Defence Materiel Administration
The Swedish Defence Materiel Administration is a Swedish government agency that reports to the Ministry of Defence. The agency is responsible for the supply of materiel to the Swedish defence organisation. It is located in Stockholm.-External links:* - Official site...
in June, only two months prior to the crash. The display flight was not classified as in-service, because it was being flown at a display by a test pilot
Test pilot
A test pilot is an aviator who flies new and modified aircraft in specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques or FTTs, allowing the results to be measured and the design to be evaluated....
, rather than a Swedish Air Force officer.
September 1999
On 20 September 1999, a JAS 39A Gripen (serial no 39-156) from AirwingWing (air force unit)
Wing is a term used by different military aviation forces for a unit of command. The terms wing, group or Staffel are used for different-sized units from one country or service to another....
F 7 Såtenäs
F 7 Såtenäs
F 7 Såtenäs, Skaraborgs Flygflottilj, Skaraborg Air Force Wing, or simply "F 7", is a Swedish Air Force wing with the main base located near Lidköping in south-central Sweden.- History of the airbase :...
crashed into Lake Vänern
Vänern
Vänern is the largest lake in Sweden, the largest lake in the EU and the third largest lake in Europe after Ladoga and Onega in Russia. It is located in the provinces of Västergötland, Dalsland, and Värmland in the southwest of the country.- History :...
during a dogfight
Dogfight
A dogfight, or dog fight, is a form of aerial combat between fighter aircraft; in particular, combat of maneuver at short range, where each side is aware of the other's presence. Dogfighting first appeared during World War I, shortly after the invention of the airplane...
exercise. After passing through the wake vortex of the other aircraft, the aircraft abruptly changed course, and the pilot, Capt. Rickard Mattsson, got a highest-severity warning from the ground-collision warning system. He ejected from the aircraft, and landed safely by parachute in the lake, where his colleague observed him getting into the inflatable life raft. He was picked up by a rescue helicopter 27 minutes later.
The Swedish Accident Investigation Board
Swedish Accident Investigation Board
The Swedish Accident Investigation Board is a Swedish government agency tasked with investigating all types of serious civil or military accidents that can occur on land, on the sea or in the air...
(SHK) could not fully determine the cause of the crash until the black box
Black Box (transportation)
The term black box is a placeholder name used casually to refer to a collection of several different recording devices used in transportation: the flight recorders in aircraft, the event recorder in railway locomotives, the event data recorder in automobiles, message case in ships, and other...
was found some 15 months later. The preliminary report is available in English.
SHK's final report — not available in English — concluded that the plane had passed through the other aircraft's wake vortex while in a steep (−70 degrees) dive. When passing, the pilot's pitch command was "up", but instead the vortex inflicted a large aerodynamic transient
Transient (civil engineering)
In civil engineering, a transient is used to refer to any pressure wave that is short lived . The most common occurrence of this is called water hammer. In a pipe network, when a valve or pump is suddenly shut off, the water flowing in an adjacent pipe is suddenly forced to stop...
on the aircraft, throwing it down into an almost vertical (−85 degrees) dive. These factors combined to create an angle of attack
Angle of attack
Angle of attack is a term used in fluid dynamics to describe the angle between a reference line on a lifting body and the vector representing the relative motion between the lifting body and the fluid through which it is moving...
that was too large for the command to be obeyed, and so the ground-collision warning system alerted the pilot that a turn to avoid a crash would require more than 10 g
G-force
The g-force associated with an object is its acceleration relative to free-fall. This acceleration experienced by an object is due to the vector sum of non-gravitational forces acting on an object free to move. The accelerations that are not produced by gravity are termed proper accelerations, and...
. He then chose, in full accordance with the flight manual, to eject. At the same moment, however, the vortex effect ceased as suddenly as it had appeared, instantly reducing the angle of attack to within limits, and thus the plane was flyable again, and could in theory have been saved.
The flight status in the moment of ejection was: altitude 750 m, flight angle −75 degrees, speed 350 km/h, angle of attack −8 degrees, and load −1.5 g.
June 2005
On 1 June 2005, a JAS 39A Gripen (serial no 39-184) from Airwing F 17 KallingeF 17 Kallinge
F 17 Kallinge, Blekinge Flygflottilj, Blekinge Air Force Wing, or simply "F 17", is a Swedish Air Force wing with the main base located near Ronneby in southern Sweden. It is one of the three remaining wings in Sweden and currently has two squadrons of multirole aircraft. F17 in the south and F21...
, when acting as a target in a dogfight exercise, apparently ceased to obey commands from the pilot, LtCol Axel Nilsson. After attempting to regain control while the aircraft slowly descended, the pilot ejected from the aircraft and landed safely by parachute.
SHK's investigation — report published in June 2007 — showed that the aircraft initially travelled at Mach
Mach number
Mach number is the speed of an object moving through air, or any other fluid substance, divided by the speed of sound as it is in that substance for its particular physical conditions, including those of temperature and pressure...
0.6 in a shallow dive at an altitude of 5500 m. When attacked, the pilot, not fully aware of the rather low speed, tried to escape by taking the plane into a steep (60 degrees) climb. This led to a "low speed"-warning, for which the pilot tried to compensate by lighting the afterburner
AfterBurner
The AfterBurner is a lighting solution for the Game Boy Advance system that was created by Triton-Labs.Originally, portablemonopoly.net was a website created to petition Nintendo to put some kind of light in their Game Boy Advance system...
and manoeuvering into an offset looping
Looping
Looping may refer to:Media and entertainment*Loop , a repeating section of sound material*Audio induction loop, an aid for the hard of hearing...
, briefly applying maximum angle of attack. The intent was to regain speed at the top of the loop. However, the speed was too low, and the aircraft ended up in an inverted (upside-down) superstall
Stall (flight)
In fluid dynamics, a stall is a reduction in the lift coefficient generated by a foil as angle of attack increases. This occurs when the critical angle of attack of the foil is exceeded...
, and started to descend slowly.
While there are measures to get out of this situation, those taken by the not-fully-trained pilot were either inadequate, insufficient or counter-productive, and he ultimately had to abandon the aircraft.
April 2007
On 19 April 2007, a JAS 39C Gripen (serial no 39-259) from Airwing F 21 LuleåF 21 Luleå
F 21 Luleå, Norrbottens flygflottilj, Norrbotten Air Force Wing, or simply "F 21", is a Swedish Air Force wing with the main base located in Luleå in northern Sweden.-External links:*...
crashed at the Vidsel
Vidsel
Vidsel is a locality situated in Älvsbyn Municipality, Norrbotten County, Sweden with 569 inhabitants in 2005. It is situated about 900 km north of Stockholm, Sweden, in the Arctic Circle; Perhaps its earliest history is as a seasonal settlement, but permanent inhabitants have lived here since...
airfield in northern Sweden. The pilot was involuntarily ejected out of the aircraft in mid-air while approaching the airstrip in order to land. He landed safely by parachute. All C/D Gripens were temporarily grounded.
The ejection seat handle — placed between the pilot's thighs — had been activated by the motions of the pilot's flight suit. Repeated jerks on the handle, resulting from the G-suit
G-suit
A G-suit, or the more accurately named anti-G suit, is worn by aviators and astronauts who are subject to high levels of acceleration force . It is designed to prevent a black-out and G-LOC caused by the blood pooling in the lower part of the body when under acceleration, thus depriving the...
inflating and deflating during the flight, had ultimately exerted enough force on it to cause the ejection. Moments before the ejection, the pilot had taken the aircraft into a tight turn, thus causing the G-suit to activate.
For the C and D models of Gripen, the ejection seat handle had been moved and redesigned to make room for larger cockpit displays. The investigation showed that the new handle was prone to these kinds of uncommanded ejections. A survey among the airwings that fly the Gripen revealed that the handle on other Gripens had become dislodged before, though not far enough to cause an ejection. The investigation concluded that the quality assurance procedures between the Swedish Defence Material Administration, the Swedish Air Force and Saab were not adequate to discover the error in time and were therefore cited as the main reason for the accident.
November 2004
On 17 November 2004, a Swedish Air Force Gripen had a birdstrike in the airspace south of GotlandGotland
Gotland is a county, province, municipality and diocese of Sweden; it is Sweden's largest island and the largest island in the Baltic Sea. At 3,140 square kilometers in area, the region makes up less than one percent of Sweden's total land area...
. A seagull was sucked into the right air intake, and the pilot decided to make an emergency landing at Visby Airport
Visby Airport
Visby Airport , is located about 3.5 km north of Visby, Gotland, Sweden.Visby airport is Gotland's only commercial airport and the 12th largest airport in Sweden. The airport had about 305,000 passengers in 2009. The traffic has a large seasonal variation with many more passengers in the...
.
April 2007
On 10 April 2007, just nine days before one of the crashes mentioned above, a Swedish Air Force Gripen had a birdstrike in northern Sweden. The collision with the bird dented lower parts of the fuselage, and the pilot made an emergency landing at Luleå AirportLuleå Airport
Luleå Airport is located about 5 km south-southeast of Luleå, Sweden, near the village of Kallax. The airport had a 995,581 passenger total in 2008, and is thus Sweden's sixth largest airport...
/Kallax Airbase (combined public/military), after which he also made an emergency exit from the cockpit by removing the canopy
Canopy (aircraft)
An aircraft canopy is the transparent enclosure over the cockpit of some types of aircraft. The function of the canopy is to provide a weatherproof and reasonably quiet environment for the aircraft's occupants. The canopy will be as aerodynamically shaped as possible to minimize drag.-History:Very...
with its built-in explosives.
October 2007
On 3 October 2007, a Swedish Air Force Gripen had a separation conflict with a passenger aircraft, i.e. they did not keep the required separation in altitude and distance. The passenger aircraft was a Saab 340Saab 340
The Saab 340 is a discontinued Swedish two-engine turboprop aircraft designed and initially produced by a partnership between Saab and Fairchild Aircraft in a 65:35 ratio...
from Avitrans Nordic on its way from Ronneby
Ronneby Airport
Ronneby Airport is located about 4 km from Ronneby, Sweden and 30 km from Karlshamn and 30 km from Karlskrona....
to Bromma
Stockholm-Bromma Airport
Stockholm-Bromma Airport is an airport in Stockholm, Sweden. Stockholm-Bromma Airport is located west northwest of downtown Stockholm and is the closest to the city...
. At their closest, the aircraft were separated 30 meters vertically and 950 meters horizontally. The incident took place in the airspace south of Oskarshamn
Oskarshamn
Oskarshamn is a coastal city and the seat of Oskarshamn Municipality, Kalmar County, Sweden with 17,258 inhabitants in 2010.-History:The location of Oskarshamn was known as Döderhultsvik since the Medieval age...
. The pilot on the passenger aircraft was alerted by the TCAS
Traffic Collision Avoidance System
A traffic collision avoidance system or traffic alert and collision avoidance system is an aircraft collision avoidance system designed to reduce the incidence of mid-air collisions between aircraft...
that another aircraft was approaching at the same altitude.
SHK concluded that the incident took place because the Gripen pilot inadvertently went below his assigned flight level and ended up on the same flight level at the passenger aircraft. SHK placed the root cause of this with the a lack of adequate routines in the Swedish Air Force for receiving and reading back instructions from air traffic control. A contributary cause of the incident was said to be a lack of support systems in the Gripen to help the pilot with the aforementioned task. Such a system is currently being introduced in the Swedish Air Force Gripens. The system will alert the pilot if the flight deviates from the assigned flight level.
May 2009
On 11 May 2009, two Gripen aircraft, one from F 17 KallingeF 17 Kallinge
F 17 Kallinge, Blekinge Flygflottilj, Blekinge Air Force Wing, or simply "F 17", is a Swedish Air Force wing with the main base located near Ronneby in southern Sweden. It is one of the three remaining wings in Sweden and currently has two squadrons of multirole aircraft. F17 in the south and F21...
and one from F 21 Luleå
F 21 Luleå
F 21 Luleå, Norrbottens flygflottilj, Norrbotten Air Force Wing, or simply "F 21", is a Swedish Air Force wing with the main base located in Luleå in northern Sweden.-External links:*...
, participating in different exercises came within 50 meters of each other in the airspace southwest of Luleå
Luleå
- Transportation :Local buses are run by .A passenger train service is available from Luleå Centralstation on Sweden's national SJ railway service northbound to Narvik on the Norwegian coast, or southbound to Stockholm. See Rail transport in Sweden....
. One aircraft was flying on a straight course, and the other was making a turn. According to initial reports, the pilots were not fully aware of each other. The incident will be investigated by SHK.
August 2009
On 6 August 2009, a Gripen from F 17 KallingeF 17 Kallinge
F 17 Kallinge, Blekinge Flygflottilj, Blekinge Air Force Wing, or simply "F 17", is a Swedish Air Force wing with the main base located near Ronneby in southern Sweden. It is one of the three remaining wings in Sweden and currently has two squadrons of multirole aircraft. F17 in the south and F21...
belly-landed
Belly landing
A belly landing or gear-up landing occurs when an aircraft lands without its landing gear fully extended and uses its underside, or belly, as its primary landing device...
after a routine mission and skidded off the runway. A minor fire broke out, but it was soon put out by the airbase fire brigade. The cause is believed to be pilot error. A witness observing the plane landing claimed the nosewheel collapsed on the runway but this claim is unlikely. What he saw from such a long distance was more likely the front landing light lamp, which on the Gripen is placed in the hatch to the front landing gear and not on the landing gear itself where it would only be visible when the gear is out, in combination with the collapsing external fuel tank under the plane. The pilot escaped unharmed and could walk away from the aircraft. SHK will investigate the incident.
May 2010
On 31 May 2010, a Gripen from F 21 LuleåF 21 Luleå
F 21 Luleå, Norrbottens flygflottilj, Norrbotten Air Force Wing, or simply "F 21", is a Swedish Air Force wing with the main base located in Luleå in northern Sweden.-External links:*...
came loose and run away during an static engine test. The aircraft gained considerable speed before rolling off the hard surface and onto nearby soft terrain, where it finally flipped over. The technician in the aircraft, lieutenant Sandra Halvarsson, escaped with minor injuries. There is unconfirmed information that the engine was accidentally started with full throttle. As the accident did not involve a flying plane, or a plane preparing to fly, it is not considered to be a crash.
October 2006
On 11 October 2006, a pilot from the Czech Air ForceCzech Air Force
The Czech Air Force is the air force branch of the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic. The Air Force, with the Land Forces, comprises the Joint Forces, the main combat power of the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic...
flying a Gripen almost hit a target-towing Learjet 35 in a live fire exercise at Vidsel airfield in northern Sweden. When practicing using the on-board automatic cannon, the Czech pilots mistakenly targeted a reserve target close to the towing plane instead of the intended target 600 meters behind the Learjet. After several "dry runs", live firing commenced, and the first pilot fired on the reserve target. Several rounds hit it, and were calculated to have passed within 10 meters of the Learjet. After this the Czech pilots discovered the actual target they were supposed to fire on, and proceeded to attack it instead. The crew of the Learjet did not notice anything out of the ordinary besides hearing the sound of the cannon, without making the connection that they had been fired upon. The incident was discovered after landing.
SHK's investigation concluded that the causes of the incident were that too many activities were scheduled for too short a time span; that the safety regulations concerning live fire exercises were outdated; and that the assignment of responsibilities and duties of the Swedish Armed Forces, the Swedish Defence Material Administration, Saab Special Flight Operations and the Czech military units were unclear. These causes put together resulted in the Czech pilots not being fully aware of the true configuration of the Learjet and the targets, which in turn led to them targeting the wrong target and one of them eventually firing on it. Contributing causes were that the Czech pilots had little to no experience of this kind of exercise, and that the target-towing Learjet had no means of monitoring the exercise. For instance the Learjet lacked a radar warning receiver
Radar warning receiver
Radar warning receiver systems detect the radio emissions of radar systems. Their primary purpose is to issue a warning when a radar signal that might be a threat is detected. The warning can then be used, manually or automatically, to evade the detected threat...
that could have revealed that they had been targeted by the Gripens.