French fighter jet crashes during training, at least one dead

PARIS

This file photograph taken on September 25, 2015 shows Dassault Mirage 2000D jet fighters at the Nancy Air Base (Base aerienne 133 de Nancy) in Thuilley-aux-Groseilles, during a military exercise of ground-guided strikes. (AFP Photo)

A French Mirage 2000D fighter jet crashed in north-eastern France during a training flight, killing at least one member of its crew, the country’s air force said on Oct. 21.

The plane went down at 9 p.m. on Oct. 20 near its air base on the outskirts of Nancy, and a search was underway for the second member of the crew.

“It appears that at least one of the crew members was not able to eject,” an air force spokesman, Colonel David Papalardo, told franceinfo radio.

One of the crew members was a young trainee pilot and the other was a very experienced weapons officer, he said.

An official representing several villages in the area, Henry Lemoine, said on Facebook that a drone had located the wreckage of the plane and emergency personnel were at the site.

The two-seater Mirage 2000D model of fighter jet entered service in 1993. France has used it in conflicts in Kosovo in 1999, Libya in 2011, in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Syria and in Africa’s Sahel region.

Several have had accidents. In January 2019, both crew members aboard one making a low-altitude night flight died in eastern France. In July 2021 the crew of another was able to eject when their aircraft went down near Nancy.

France has just completed a renovation program for its fleet of Mirage 2000Ds, which it intends to keep in service into the 2030s.