With only a few weeks left of training on the JAS 39 Gripen, the fighter pilot in West Sweden was suddenly reassigned because he did not pass the latest safety check.
According to the employer, the reason is that the pilot allegedly concealed the fact that he underwent a "vision-improving procedure".
The procedure is today medically approved for fighter pilots.
- My wish is to have a new trial and that they follow the existing rules, he says to SVT.
Today he sits alone in a room in a barracks on the military compound and sticks labels.
The lawyer: Provoked dismissal
In the lawsuit, the man's lawyer Stellan Gärde states that the reassignment from fighter pilot to assistant in a cold room means that the Swedish Armed Forces subjected his client to a provoked dismissal from his permanent employment as a pilot with the Swedish Armed Forces.
- It is a scandal that it has happened this way, he says.
Since the fighter pilot selection in 2017, the redeployed fighter pilot has undergone several approved safety tests.
Eye surgery
When he applied for the training, he did not state that he had undergone vision-improving surgery.
It was in connection with the Armed Forces receiving information about it that he was taken out of flight service during the medical examination of his eyes.
- I was medically approved and the case was also taken up in the personnel responsibility board.
I was then given the go-ahead to continue flying.
This procedure is now allowed for pilots.
The Armed Forces: "A fighter pilot must be reliable"
From documents to the defense personnel responsibility board, it appears that the pilot's vision was medically approved, but that it is the withholding of information that made him want to be removed from his service: "A fighter pilot's work and function in the air defense place very high demands on openness, reliability and honesty. ", the manager writes in his submission.
This did not happen, but the pilot was reassigned.
SVT seeks the defense forces for a comment.