May 8, 2026, 10:25 amMay 8, 2026, 12:40 p.m
The Swiss solar aircraft Solar Impulse crashed in the Gulf of Mexico and was completely destroyed. A report by the US traffic safety authority confirmed a corresponding report by the French-speaking Swiss radio and television RTS on Friday.
A loss of power caused the plane to crash, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said. The unmanned flight took off from Stennis International Airport in the US state of Mississippi on Monday morning, May 4th. The plane then crashed in international waters in the Bay of St-Louis. Nobody was injured. The NTSB announced a final report after the ongoing investigation ends.
Historical circumnavigation of the world
The crash came 10 years after the plane completed its historic flight around the world without fuel. On July 26, 2016, the Solar Impulse 2 landed in Abu Dhabi, from where it took off on March 9, 2015. The plane covered 42,000 kilometers in 17 stages and crossed four continents.
The two pilots, Bertrand Piccard from Vaud and André Borschberg from Zurich, took turns in the cockpit. The aircraft weighed only one and a half tons, but had the wingspan of a Boeing 747. Around 17,000 solar cells on the wings supplied the batteries with energy and enabled an average speed of 80 kilometers per hour.
Sales and military use
Three years after this success, Solar Impulse sold the aircraft to the Spanish-American start-up Skydweller. The selling price was never disclosed. Skydweller wanted to use the know-how to develop unmanned, autonomous aircraft for surveillance purposes. It was later revealed that the US Navy was funding tests of the aircraft.
With the crash, the plan to exhibit the aircraft in Switzerland also collapsed. In the purchase contract with Skydweller it was originally agreed that the Solar Impulse would come to the Swiss Museum of Transport in Lucerne after use.
Project team sad
After the loss of the previous Solar Impulse aircraft, the team behind the solar project was affected. “Even though it is no longer the Solar Impulse aircraft, as it was taken over by the private company Skydweller Aero and profoundly modified to make it a drone, the Solar Impulse team is saddened by the loss of a technological flagship,” Solar Impulse’s communications department said in response to a request from the Keystone-SDA news agency. (sda)