Swedish Military Jet Crashes Scouting Ship

A Swedish military jet scouting one of Russia’s most sophisticated naval vessels crashed into the Baltic Sea near the ship on Wednesday.

The plane crashed while trying to avoid a Russian reconnaissance plane, air force commander Kent Harrskog told the Swedish news agency TT. The fate of the pilot, 31-year-old Capt. Goeran Carlsson, was not known.

The plane crashed several hundred yards from the Pyotr Veliky, a nuclear-powered guided-missile cruiser. The Russian navy said the ship was en route to St. Petersburg from a naval base in Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave between Lithuania and Poland.

The jet, a Swedish-made Viggen, was one of two scouting out the ship. Harrskog said the lead plane tried to pass under the Russian plane, but crashed.

He said the Russian plane did not appear to have been sent to as a provocation.