Fighter jet crashes and explodes into fireball in France with one dead and search launched for missing crew member

A French fighter jet has crashed during a training flight, killing at least one crew member and sparking an urgent search for the other.

The French Mirage 2000D crashed near the plane’s air base on the outskirts of Nancy, in the Rogeville commune, France’s Air and Space Force confirmed to local outlet Ici Lorraine.

Witnesses reported hearing an explosion and seeing a fireball in the evening at around 10.30pm, it added.

“It appears that at least one of the crew members was unable to eject,” Colonel David Pappalardo told Franceinfo.

Col Pappalardo said the plane, which was carrying out a training mission, was in radio contact with the Nancy air base before “suddenly, the base noticed that it was no longer responding to the radio and had lost radar contact”.

Onboard were two military personnel, including a “young pilot in training” and a “highly experienced” weapons systems officer. The body that was recovered has not yet been publicly identified.

The colonel added that it is “far too early to draw any conclusions about what caused this accident”.

The aircraft, which belonged to France’s Fighter Squadron 2/3 Champagne at the Nancy Air Base, is a two-seater that carries a pilot and a weapons systems officer, Ici reported.

Rescue teams from the air force, fire service and French gendarmerie all launched rescue operations, before finding the first wreckage at around 4am Wednesday morning (3am BST).

Yves Seguy, the prefect of Meurthe-et-Moselle, said in a press briefing that the search was carried out in “difficult weather conditions” with the fog making the use of helicopters impossible overnight.

A helicopter and firefighters from neighbouring regions have now joined the search, across an area consisting of a mixture of fields and forests.

The Air Force told Franceinfo the crash was an “exceptional accident” and that the rescue operation is “complex but under control”.

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