Fighter jet crashes in Finland, pilot ejects to safety

HELSINKI (Reuters) -A fighter jet belonging to the Finnish Air Force crashed near an airport in northern Finland on Wednesday, the country's military said, adding that the pilot had ejected from the aircraft and was taken to hospital.

Smoke was seen rising from the general direction of where the aircraft went down and there was a strong smell of smoke in the air, public broadcaster Yle reported. The area was cordoned off by local police.

"An F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet plunged to the ground in the Rovaniemi airport area," the Air Force said in a statement.

It later added that the pilot had been taken to a medical facility to be examined and that no one had been injured on the ground.

The Rovaniemi airport remained open, its operator separately said.

Finland has 62 Hornet fighter jets bought between 1992 and 2000. The Nordic country in 2021 decided to replace them with Lockheed Martin F-35 fighters.

(Reporting by Essi Lehto, editing by Terje Solsvik and Toby Chopra)