The Hungarian Air Force scrambled a pair of JAS 39 Gripen fighter jets on August 29 after a man took off without authorization in a Cessna 172 from Kalocsa airfield and headed toward the Paks Nuclear Power Plant. Before the Gripens could intercept it, the Cessna made a forced landing in a sunflower field near Gerjen in Tolna County.

According to Hungarian Defense Minister Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi, military radars detected the aircraft shortly after takeoff, prompting the launch of the quick reaction alert pair. Minutes later, information was received that the Cessna had made a forced landing and sustained significant damage.

The Gripens located the aircraft on the ground and remained overhead until a rescue helicopter and ground units arrived. No one was injured in the incident, the Hungarian Ministry of Defense confirmed.

Police subsequently established that the Cessna 172 had been taken from Kalocsa airfield by a 24-year-old man from Szomor. After the forced landing, he abandoned the aircraft and was seen walking along Route 512 in an apparently confused state. A passing motorist stopped to offer assistance, but the man entered the car and attempted to drive away. He was prevented from doing so, and police officers located and detained him nearby within minutes.

According to preliminary police findings, the man was intoxicated. Further tests are being conducted to determine whether he was also under the influence of other substances. Proceedings have been opened against him for the unauthorized taking of a vehicle and other possible offenses, while police said they would seek his pretrial detention following questioning.

Hungarian police and the country’s civil aviation authority immediately launched a joint inspection at Kalocsa airfield. Similar checks are expected to follow at other Hungarian airfields, although the authorities have not disclosed what the inspections will cover or how long they will take. Photographs from the scene show the heavily damaged Cessna in a sunflower field, but without any visible signs of fire. The police statement does not explain what caused the forced landing.

The incident was particularly serious because the aircraft was heading toward Paks, the site of Hungary’s only nuclear power plant. The facility operates four VVER-440/213 reactors with a combined installed capacity of 2,000 megawatts and accounts for almost half of Hungary’s domestic electricity generation.

A permanently prohibited area, designated LHP1 Paks, surrounds the plant. According to Hungary’s current Aeronautical Information Publication, the area has a radius of three kilometers and extends from the ground to flight level FL195, approximately 5,950 meters. It is active 24 hours a day. However, neither the Ministry of Defense nor the police have stated that the Cessna actually entered the prohibited area. The authorities have confirmed only that it was flying toward Paks before coming down near Gerjen. There is therefore no basis at this stage to claim that the aircraft violated the prohibited airspace directly above the plant.

It was the second Gripen scramble in two days. A day earlier, Hungarian fighters were launched in response to a French-registered Piper PA-28 flying from Slovenia through Austria toward the Czech Republic without establishing radio contact with civilian air traffic control. Austrian quick reaction alert fighters were also launched, after which the Piper briefly entered Hungarian airspace without authorization near Fertőszentmiklós. Radio contact was subsequently restored, and the aircraft returned to Austria near Kapuvár. Hungarian authorities reported the airspace and aviation regulations violation to the relevant authorities.

The two consecutive alerts came only days after a Hungarian Gripen crashed at Szolnok military air base on August 24. The pilot ejected successfully, and no one on the ground was injured. The cause of the accident remains under investigation.

Shortly before the accident, Hungary had completed the expansion of its Gripen C/D fleet to 18 aircraft, consisting of 16 single-seat Gripen Cs and two twin-seat Gripen Ds. The final two additional aircraft arrived at Kecskemét in June 2026, completing the fleet expansion agreed with Sweden. The Szolnok crash resulted in the loss of one aircraft, but the Hungarian Air Force retained its ability to maintain a continuous quick reaction alert pair for the surveillance and protection of Hungarian and NATO airspace.