Lars Gunnar Robert Rådeström (born 7 June 1944) is a 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....

 former 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...

 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....

.

Crashes with Gripen

Rådeström was the pilot in the first two Gripens

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...

 to crash

Aviation accidents and incidents

An aviation accident is defined in the Convention on International Civil Aviation Annex 13 as an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft which takes place between the time any person boards the aircraft with the intention of flight and all such persons have disembarked, in which a...

, while the aircraft was still in the test series. Both crashes were caught on film by television crews from Sveriges Television

Sveriges Television

Sveriges Television AB , Sweden's Television, is a national television broadcaster based in Sweden, funded by a compulsory fee to be paid by all television owners...

.

• The first crash occurred on 2 February 1989 during an attempt to land at 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...
  
  's airstrip at Linköping Airport. Rådeström remained in the tumbling aircraft, but escaped miraculously with only a fractured elbow and a few other minor injuries.

• The second crash occurred on 8 August 1993, when his 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....
  
  . Rådeström ejected 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), while the aircraft fell to the ground and caught fire at impact. No one on the ground was seriously injured, and the fire was soon put out.

Both crashes were 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).

After the second crash Rådeström decided to retire as a test pilot at the age of 49. The usual retirement age of test pilots is 50, but in an interview he said that he "did not want to push [his] luck for just another year."