Swedish combat jets grounded by high pressure
Associated Press, Stockholm | Tue, 01/31/2012 10:17 PM
JAS 39 Gripen: (AP/Scanpix, Johan Nilsson)
High atmospheric pressure is typically associated with good flying weather. Not so at the Lulea air base in northern Sweden, where about a dozen Gripen fighter jets were barred from taking part in a Nordic air exercise Tuesday because of an abnormally strong high pressure system.
It's not that it's unsafe to fly, says base commander Mats Hakkarainen, but the pressure is so extreme the planes' instruments are being confused by the values and issue error signals.
The national weather agency says the atmospheric pressure in northern Sweden reached a 40-year high on Sunday.
Peter Liander, a spokesman for Gripen maker Saab, stressed that the plane can fly in all kinds of weather, but "the value is so extreme" that flight instruments treat it as an error.
