Air Force training jet crashes in Keuruu, pilots manage to escape

A training fighter jet of Finnish Air Force crashed at Keuruu, a municipality in Central Finland on Monday afternoon, said the Fir Forces.

Both the pilots in Hawk fighter jet, however, managed to escape in their ejection seats before the crash, said the Air Force in a twitter post.

“The Air Force's Hawk jet trainer has had an accident on May 15 afternoon. The plane crashed at the south of Keuruu. The pilots have been saved in the ejection seat,” said the tweeter post in Finnish.

The Air Force Academy's commandant, Colonel Vesa Mäntylä told journalists that the accident took place during the third and final round of a five-plane air combat exercise.

The instructor and the trainee found an abnormal vibration in the aircraft and issued an emergency warning on the radio when the aircraft was flying at an altitude of about 1.5 to 2.0 kilometres.

Both of them ejected when the aircraft was at a height of less than 500 metres from the ground safely, said Mäntylä.