An honour guard for Sweden’s Paralympians
Residents of Stockholm witnessed an unusual formation of aircraft just after lunch on Monday 9 September. Four Swedish Air Force Saab JAS39 Gripen fighters escorted the Scandinavian Airlines Airbus A320-251N carrying home Sweden’s Paralympic athletes from the games in Paris, which had ended the previous day.
The SAS Airbus, which landed at Stockholm’s Arlanda airport, was carrying a number of the Swedish Paralympians. The team scooped one silver and two bronze medals in the 2024 Paralympics, Anna Benson coming second in the mixed 50 metres air rifle, while cyclist Anna Beck and judoka Nicolina Pernheim won bronze in their events.
Paralympian swimmer Conrad Hildebrand filmed the Gripens from the airliner, noting that: “If you look closely you see the pilots doing hearts to us.“
