{"id":62133,"date":"2026-05-08T11:10:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T11:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/62133\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T11:10:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T11:10:14","slug":"solar-impulse-aircraft-destroyed-in-gulf-of-mexico-crash-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/62133\/","title":{"rendered":"Solar Impulse aircraft destroyed in Gulf of Mexico crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Solar<\/p>\n

The accident comes nearly ten years after the aircraft, developed by Bertrand Piccard and Andr\u00e9 Borschberg, completed a landmark round\u2011the\u2011world flight without fuel. <\/p>\n

Keystone-SDA <\/p>\n

Solar Impulse 2, a solar\u2011powered aircraft built in Switzerland that completed a landmark round\u2011the\u2011world flight in 2016, has been destroyed after crashing into the Gulf of Mexico. No one was on board.\n<\/p>\n

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Generated with artificial intelligence. <\/p>\n

This content was published on <\/p>\n

May 8, 2026 – 12:17\n<\/p>\n

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Sold in 2019 to a Spanish\u2011American company and later tested by the US Navy, the aircraft went down on Monday, according to a safety report released by US authorities, confirming information reported by Swiss broadcaster RTS on Friday.<\/p>\n

The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said the aircraft suffered a loss of power before crashing into the ocean. It was completely destroyed. No one was on board and no injuries were reported.<\/p>\n

According to the NTSB\u2019s preliminary findings, the aircraft took off at dawn on Monday, 4 May, from Stennis International Airport in Mississippi. It crashed in international waters in St Louis Bay, in the Gulf of Mexico. The investigation is ongoing, and a final report will be published at a later date.<\/p>\n

Ten years after historic journey<\/p>\n

The accident comes nearly ten years after the aircraft, developed by Bertrand Piccard and Andr\u00e9 Borschberg, completed a landmark round\u2011the\u2011world flight without fuel, landing in Abu Dhabi on 26 July 2016.<\/p>\n

\n More<\/p>\n

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Climate solutions\n <\/p>\n

Swiss solar plane ends round-the-world tour <\/p>\n

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This content was published on <\/p>\n

Jul 26, 2016 <\/p>\n

Solar Impulse 2 completes its record-breaking, round-the-world tour. Here are the facts on this high-flying project. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Read more: Swiss solar plane ends round-the-world tour
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Solar Impulse 2 had departed from the same city on 9 March 2015 and travelled 42,000 kilometres in 17 stages, crossing four continents. Flying at an average speed of around 80 km\/h and reaching altitudes of more than 8,500 metres, the pilots took turns in the single\u2011seat cockpit to limit weight.<\/p>\n

Despite weighing just 1.5 tonnes, the aircraft had the wingspan of a Boeing 747. Its batteries were powered by around 17,000 photovoltaic cells mounted on the wings.<\/p>\n

The project cost nearly CHF170 million and was backed by sponsors including Omega, ABB and Google, as well as receiving support from the Swiss government.<\/p>\n

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Solar Impulse may turn into stratospheric drone <\/p>\n

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This content was published on <\/p>\n

Jan 7, 2016 <\/p>\n

What next for Solar Impulse if the plane completes its round-the-world flight next year? One idea is to develop solar drones to replace satellites, joining Facebook and Google in this experimental field. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Read more: Solar Impulse may turn into stratospheric drone
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Military testing and failed return home<\/p>\n

In 2019, Solar Impulse SA sold the aircraft to the start\u2011up Skydweller, in a deal whose value was never disclosed. The Spanish\u2011American company aimed to build on Solar Impulse\u2019s technology to develop autonomous, unmanned solar\u2011powered aircraft for environmental monitoring, industrial use and telecommunications.<\/p>\n

An RTS investigation later revealed that the aircraft had become part of a project with potential military applications. <\/p>\n

\n More<\/p>\n

\"solar<\/p>\n

More <\/p>\n

Solar Impulse to be reborn as a military-linked project <\/p>\n

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This content was published on <\/p>\n

Nov 23, 2020 <\/p>\n

What happened to Solar Impulse, presented to the world as the future of clean aviation? <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Read more: Solar Impulse to be reborn as a military-linked project
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

In July 2025, the US Navy announced tests to explore its use for maritime intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.<\/p>\n

Under the sale agreement, the aircraft was to return to Switzerland to be exhibited at the Swiss Museum of Transport in Lucerne. That plan will now go unfulfilled.<\/p>\n

Adapted from French by AI\/sb<\/p>\n

How we work <\/p>\n

We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.<\/p>\n

If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at\u00a0english@swissinfo.ch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Articles in this story <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The accident comes nearly ten years after the aircraft, developed by Bertrand Piccard and Andr\u00e9 Borschberg, completed a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[34153,15826,101,98,312,100,103,17,21313],"class_list":{"0":"post-62133","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-switzerland","8":"tag-air-and-space-accident","9":"tag-air-transport","10":"tag-article","11":"tag-beat-culture","12":"tag-beat-various","13":"tag-latest-news","14":"tag-production-type-deepl-autotranslation","15":"tag-switzerland","16":"tag-user-need-update-me"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116538653207146759","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}