French air police ground Swiss interior minister’s private flight

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Berset, who is known for his elegant dressing style, has had a pilot licence for private aircraft for more than ten years. © Ti-press

The Swiss interior minister, Alain Berset, on a private flight in neighbouring France has been forced to land by the French air force.

A ministry spokesman said Berset misinterpreted information from the French air traffic control tower prompting an intervention by the French air force last week.

Berset was able to continue his flight with the hired Cessna light aircraft following an identity check and further inquiries, according to the spokesman.

The Neue Zürcher Zeitung newspaper on Tuesday reported that Berset, who has a pilot licence for small aircraft, had taken off from western Switzerland on a private flight over several stages.

He reportedly approached the closed airspace above a command centre of a French military air base about 300km from the Swiss border.

Berset has been in the Swiss news over the past few years over blackmail affair in a reported extramarital relationship.

About Swissinfo

SWI swissinfo.ch – the international service of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC). Since 1999, swissinfo.ch has fulfilled the federal government’s mandate to distribute information about Switzerland internationally, supplementing the online offerings of the radio and television stations of the SBC. Today, the international service is directed above all at an international audience interested in Switzerland, as well as at Swiss citizens living abroad.

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