Hungarian Gripen jet crashes, no injuries reported, PM Magyar says

BUDAPEST, Aug 24 - A Hungarian Gripen fighter jet crashed near the town of Szolnok on Monday, with the pilot having successfully ejected from the plane, Prime Minister Peter Magyar said in a Facebook post.• The cause of the accident was currently unclear, and there were no injuries or casualties, Magyar said. No civilian infrastructure was harmed, he added.• The minister of defence was on his way to the scene, and an inquiry into the cause of the accident was underway, Magyar said.• "According to a preliminary report, there were no injuries and there was no harm in civilian infrastructure," Magyar wrote on Facebook.• "The pilot is in an ambulance, he is alive," Minister of Defence Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi said in a Facebook video.• Hungary, a NATO member state, operates 18 JAS 39 Gripen fighter aircraft, based in Kecskemet.• In 2015, a Hungarian Gripen crash-landed in central Hungary due to a technical fault. The pilot ejected and the jet was later repaired. REUTERS