Swiss Boeing F/A-18C Fighter Jet Found Crashed With Pilot Dead

The Swiss military has found its missing pilot dead and the F/A-18 jet crashed in the Alps mountains near Susten Pass.

A Swiss airforce pilot has been found dead following the crash of an F/A-18 military jet on Monday, the defence ministry has confirmed to swissinfo.ch.

"The army expressed their heartfelt condolences to his relatives," the defence ministry said. The 27-year-old deceased pilot's family is being cared for by army specialists.

An investigation into the accident has been launched and an operation has been mounted to recover the debris of the wreckage that was found in the mountains near the Susten Pass on Tuesday.

The crash site is located in a deep basin, with steep glacier slopes.

Since Monday afternoon, the army helicopters were actively investigating, looking for missing fighter jet and pilot but the search was difficult due to bad weather. Moreover, it was difficult to access the crash site on foot.

The single-seat aircraft had been participating in a training mission with another jet in a thick layer of clouds. Last contact with the missing pilot was at 16:05 pm Swiss time on Monday.

Following take off from the Meiringen military airport at 16:01 pm, the missing pilot had responded to a radio call as expected at 16:05. But he didn’t  reply to a second call.