Two pilots died in a crash between two fighter planes in eastern France on Wednesday, the government said. The collision occurred around midday for unknown reasons and happened after the fighter planes returned from a resupply mission in Germany, according to the Air Force. The deceased, an instructor and his student, were in one of the planes that collided, while the other pilot, who survived, was in the second plane. Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu will visit the air base of the pilots, both of French nationality, on Thursday.
French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his condolences on Wednesday evening in a message posted on his X account. “It is with great sadness that we learn of the death of Captain Sébastien Mabire and Lieutenant Matthis Laurens in an air accident during a Rafale training mission. The nation shares the pain of their families and brothers in arms from the 113th Air Base in Saint-Dizier,” the tweet said. Lecornu also posted a message of condolences on the same social network.
A third pilot, also French, survived the accident, having managed to eject from the aircraft in time. He was slightly injured, the Ministry of Defence said in a statement, which also specified that the collision occurred while the fighters were carrying out “combat manoeuvres”. Security and judicial investigations have already been opened to determine the reasons for the crash, it added.
The collision occurred at around 12:30 p.m., according to the Air Force, and the planes crashed near Colombey-les-Belles, in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in eastern France. The fighter jets belonged to the Rafale conversion squadron, which is tasked with training pilots for the French armed forces, the same source said.
The surviving pilot was found shortly after the crash. The other two, however, were declared missing before being found hours later in a wooded area. Lecornu will go to the Saint-Dizier air base on Thursday to pay tribute to the deceased.
This is not the first time that an accident involving Rafale aircraft has occurred in France, although they are rare. A pilot was killed in 2009 when two fighter jets collided off the coast of Perpignan in the south-east of the country. Another accident occurred in 2007 in central France. The Rafales, built by Dassault Aviation, entered service in 2004. They are multi-role fighters that compete with, among others, the American F-35.
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