Fliegerstaffel 17

The Fliegerstaffel 17 "Falcons" is a squadron of the Swiss Air Force equipped with F / A-18 combat aircraft . It belongs to the professional aviation corps and, together with Fliegerstaffel 6, is subordinate to Fliegergeschwader 11. Your home base is the Payerne military airfield . The Squadron 17 carries as emblem a red hawk on a white ground, with the black number 17 on the right bottom of the badge.

history

The aircraft J-5017 of the type F / A-18C has a special painting of the Fliegerstaffel 17

Mirage IIIS with the Fliegerstaffel 17 squadron badge on the vertical stabilizer

From 1925 to 1939, the unit founded as Jagd Fliegerkompanie 17 was equipped with eight Häfeli DH-5s and one Dewoitine D-27. From 1939 to 1942 flight operations were carried out with the C-35 and Fokker CV. Operational airfields were Bellinzona , Littau , Hilfikon , Spreitenbach , Breitfeld near St. Gallen, Kloten - Rümlang or Weinfelden ; all airfields that have long since disappeared. In 1942 they retrained in Stans on the C-3603. Then from 1945 to 1947 flight operations with C-3603 were carried out at Raron airfield . In the post-war period, the Jagd Flieger Kp 17 was transferred to the UeG ( surveillance wing) Staffel 3 and used various types of aircraft there, such as the Morane D-3803 from 1947 to 1955 and the C-3604 from 1947 to 1956.

In 1952, today's Fliegerstaffel 17 was founded. The squadron's first jet aircraft operation took place from 1955 to 1967 with the De Havilland DH.112 Venom from Buochs ​​Airfield and Emmen Airfield . In 1963 the "falcon" was introduced as a new season emblem. From 1969 to 1975 flight operations were carried out with the Mach 2 fast Mirage III S from the Turtmann military airfield , then from 1976 to 1997 with the Mirage III S from the Payerne military airfield . As the first squadron of the Swiss Air Force, Fliegerstaffel 17 received the F / A-18 Hornet in 1997. At the end of 2005 the surveillance squadron was disbanded and the personnel of Fliegerstaffel 17 were transferred to the professional aviation corps . In 2010, Fliegerstaffel 17 received its relay machine with the J-5017 with relay painting on the vertical stabilizers. In normal flight operations, the J-5017 is given priority to the squadron commander, but is also flown by other pilots. If the current F / A-18 Hornet Solo Display Pilot is from Season 17, he will fly the demonstration with the J-5017 if possible. The co-founder of the F / A-18 Hornet Solo Display and head of flight safety Stéphane Rapaz is a pilot in Squadron 17. From 2000 to 2002, today's divisional officer Claude Meier was the commander of Squadron 17.

Accidents

• On March 24, 1977, two Mirage IIIs (J-2003 and J-2310) collided during a formation flight over Payerne Airfield. All those involved survived the collision, including the then deputy commander of Fliegerstaffel 17 and later chief of the army , Christophe Keckeis .

• On August 29, 2016, the F / A-18C J-5022 crashed into a rock ridge shortly after taking off from Meiringen in the Susten region . The pilot David Goldiger from Fliegerstaffel 17 was killed. The investigation is still ongoing. The main cause of the accident is assumed to be too low an altitude allocation by air traffic control in Meiringen.

Planes

• Häfeli DH-5
• Dewoitine D-27
• Fokker CV
• C-35
• C3603
• C3604
• Morane D-3803
• de Havilland DH.112 Venom
• Mirage III S
• F / A-18

Web links

Commons : Fliegerstaffel 17  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Brief report on former FlSt17 pilots
• Official DDPS page of FlSt17 ( Memento from May 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
• Detailed report on the 90th anniversary of Fliegerstaffel 17 and its history, Cockpit No.12 2015 ( Memento from February 25, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
• History of Fliegerstaffel 17 ( Memento from February 25, 2016 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Flavian Cajacob: Christophe Keckeis - A plane that adheres to the ground . In: Handelszeitung , November 15, 2003, accessed on March 10, 2016.
2. ^ David Goldiger, mort lundi dans la chute de son avion militaire, laisse un souvenir ému à Forel, le village de sa jeunesse.
3. ↑ F / A-18 crash in the Susten region: interim results. Media release from military justice, VBS u. a. dated September 6, 2016, accessed on September 16, 2018
4. ↑ The air traffic control officer ordered 10,000 feet. However, the minimum altitude was 14,300 feet.