A pilot found, a student and an instructor still wanted… what we know about the collision between two Rafales

Two Rafale planes collided on Wednesday over a wooded area in Lorraine and two pilots, a student and his instructor, are missing while a third, at the controls of the other aircraft and who was able to eject, is safe and sound.

Two fighter jets from the Rafale Transformation Squadron at the Saint-Dizier air base (Haute-Marne) collided, a spokesperson for the Air and Space Force in Paris told AFP.

The collision took place “at around 12:30 p.m. on the return from a resupply mission in Germany”, the Air Force said on X, according to which “safety investigations and “Legal proceedings are being opened to shed light on the reasons for this accident.”

Aujourd’hui, vers 12h30, 2 avions #Rafale de l’escadron de transformation Rafale (ETR) de la base aérienne 113 de Saint-Dizier (Haute-Marne) sont entrés en collision au retour d’une mission de ravitaillement en Allemagne.

— Armée de l'Air et de l'Espace (@Armee_de_lair) August 14, 2024

The pilot of one of the two aircraft ejected before impact. He is out of danger. On the other hand, the instructor and the student pilot who were in the second aircraft were still missing at the beginning of the afternoon, the army added.

“It crashed”

“The search is still ongoing. Thanks to our armed forces and the gendarmes mobilized in the search and to secure the area”, the resigning Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, indicated on X.

Un accident de deux Rafale de l’Escadron de Transformation Rafale 3/4 « Aquitaine » a eu lieu en Meurthe et Moselle.

Un des pilotes a été retrouvé, il est sain et sauf. Les recherches sont toujours en cours. Merci à nos forces armées ainsi qu’aux gendarmes mobilisés dans les…

— Sébastien Lecornu (@SebLecornu) August 14, 2024

The accident occurred in the Colombey-les-Belles sector, southwest of Nancy, very close to the Nancy-Ochey air base and at the limit of the Vosges department. "I was eating, a plane passed above me, it was heading north, it there was like an explosion and it caught fire", Laëtitia, a resident of Autreville (Vosges), testified to AFP.< /p>

"He fell on the wood, he crashed, near the road to Colombey-les-belles. I only saw one plane. It made a huge black cloud. It'was impressive", she confided. +The Meurthe-et-Moselle prefecture has opened a special number (09.70.80.90.40) to collect testimonies.

On site, all the roads between Colombey-les-Belles, Autreville and Harmonville are blocked by the gendarmes, noted AFP journalists, who saw a criminal identification vehicle and drones pass by. According to the Meurthe-et-Moselle departmental fire and rescue service (Sdis), 54 of its firefighters are working. Ninety gendarmes are mobilized for the search, the gendarmerie also indicated.

"It was a strange noise"

"We heard a loud noise, maybe around 12:30. We often hear planes go by, but it wasn't the sound barrier, it had nothing to do with it", testified Patrice Bonneaux, deputy mayor of Colombey-les-Belles.

“It was a strange noise, a percussion noise. I assumed that two planes had collided, but we didn't believe it”, he added. The Rafale transformation squadron “has as its main mission the training of pilots and navigators of the French armed forces", specifies the Air Force on X.

The army specified to AFP that all the pilots concerned were of French nationality. Ukrainian pilots are currently being trained in France, but at the Cazaux base (southwest) and only on Alpha-Jet fighters. Accidents involving Rafales are relatively rare.

On 7 December 2007, an unarmed Rafale crashed near Neuvic (Corrèze) after diving down from 4,000 metres. This was the first accident involving a Rafale. The investigation concluded that there was a phenomenon of “spatial disorientation” of the pilot.

And on September 24, 2009, an accident between two Rafales occurred as they were preparing to join the aircraft carrier Charles-de-Gaulle, at the end of a training flight and a maximum weight catapult test. One of the pilots died in the accident.