Swedish Gripens grounded by high pressure!
This story is hard to believe for a 4th generation fighter, would a Typhoon be similarly effected?
STOCKHOLM (AP) — 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.