French fighter jet crashes in Nancy: at least one dead
Second pilot missing
A French fighter jet has crashed near Nancy, in France: at least one person has died. The news comes from the air force. According to reports in the public newspaper Ici Lorraine, the military aircraft is believed to have crashed during the night and a body has already been recovered.
The co-pilot is still missing. Some witnesses reported hearing a loud explosion and seeing a fireball at around 10.30 pm on Tuesday evening.
According to Agence France-Presse, the aircraft, which had taken off from the 133rd Air Base at Nancy-Ochey, was on a training flight. The crash is reported to have taken place near Rogéville. According to reports from Ici Lorraine, a large-scale search operation has been underway since yesterday evening in the areas around Rogéville, Tremblecourt and Domèvre-en-Haye, some fifteen kilometres from Pont-à-Mousson (Meurthe-et-Moselle).
The French Air Force has confirmed that radio and radar contact was lost with a Mirage 2000D yesterday evening at around 10.30 pm in the Rogéville area. According to the mayor of Rogéville, Pascal Doyotte, several witnesses reported hearing a loud explosion and seeing a fireball at around 10.30 pm. According to Le Monde, the mayor of Pont-à-Mousson, Henry Lemoine, wrote on Facebook that ‘debris had been spotted by a drone’. The aircraft, belonging to the 2/3 Champagne fighter squadron at Nancy Air Base, Ici Lorraine reports, is a two-seater carrying a pilot and a weapons systems officer.
The French Air Force has described a ‘suspected violent incident’ following a powerful explosion in the Rogéville area. Support services have been put in place for the families and loved ones of those affected. At the scene, personnel from the Meurthe-et-Moselle fire and rescue service, firefighters and rescue workers from the Air Force’s 133rd Air Base in Nancy-Ochey, as well as gendarmerie officers, worked through the night to comb the vast area of fields and woodland. A helicopter flew over the perimeter. The command centre was set up at the entrance to the town of Rogéville.
