Two French pilots were killed on Wednesday after their Rafale jets collided in mid-air in eastern France, President Emmanuel Macron said, in a rare accident involving the advanced military aircraft.
One pilot bailed out after the crash over northeastern France, but authorities launched a desperate search for a missing instructor and a student pilot in the second plane.
“We learned with sadness of the death of Captain Sebastien Mabire and Lieutenant Matthis Laurens in a plane crash during a Rafale training mission,” Macron said on X, formerly Twitter.
“The nation shares the sorrow of their families and comrades in arms at Air Base 113 in Saint-Dizier” in eastern France, he added.
“One of the pilots has been found safe and sound,” Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu said earlier on X.
It is not yet clear what caused the collision, which authorities say took place above Colombey-les-Belles, a town in northeastern France.
“The military authorities will report on the causes of the accident,” the local prefecture said.
The supersonic Rafale fighter jet, used to chase enemy aircraft, attack ground and sea targets, conduct reconnaissance and even carry French nuclear warheads, has become a best-seller for the French arms industry.
Accidents involving Rafale jets are rare.
– 'Strange sound' –
“We heard a loud noise around 12:30 (10:30 GMT),” Patrice Bonneaux, deputy mayor of Colombey-les-Belles, told AFP.
It wasn't the usual sonic boom of a fighter jet breaking the sound barrier, he said. “It was a strange sound, a percussive sound.”
“I assumed that two planes had collided, but we didn't believe it,” he said, adding that a road along a nearby forest had been closed.
In December 2007, a Rafale jet crashed near Neuvic in southwestern France. Investigators concluded that the pilot had become disoriented.
It is believed that this was the first crash of a Rafale.
In September 2009, two Rafale aircraft crashed while returning to the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier off the coast of Perpignan after a test flight. One pilot died.
France has sold the Rafale to Egypt, India, Greece, Indonesia, Croatia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Lecornu said in January that France had ordered 42 new Rafale fighter jets, with the first to be delivered in 2027. The French military has now ordered more than 230 Rafales since the jet entered service.
Macron has called on defence manufacturers to step up production and innovation as Europe seeks to increase arms supplies to Ukraine, which has been struggling with the Russian invasion for three years.
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