Two crew killed after French Mirage 2000D fighter crashes near Nancy

The crash

A Mirage 2000D fighter of the French Air and Space Force came down during the night of Tuesday, 20 October, in a wooded area near Rogéville in Meurthe-et-Moselle, close to Nancy. The two-seat jet was flying back to its base, Nancy-Ochey Air Base 133, after a night training exercise when it crashed at about 22:40 local time. Air traffic control lost radio and radar contact with the aircraft during its return, according to air force spokesman Colonel David Pappalardo. No distress signal was sent before the aircraft went down.

Search and wreckage

Search teams found the first debris at about 4:00 on Wednesday, 21 October, after a night of work by firefighters, gendarmes and air force personnel from Nancy-Ochey. The mayor of Rogéville, Pascal Doyotte, wrote on social media that a drone had located the wreckage after a loud blast was heard during the night. The site lies in steep, wooded terrain that is hard to reach, and the area between Rogéville, Tremblecourt and Domèvre-en-Haye, about 15 kilometres from Pont-à-Mousson, is a mix of forest and fields. Prefect Yves Séguy described bad weather, darkness and dense fog that made the work difficult. A gendarmerie helicopter was able to fly over the site on Wednesday. Residents told British media they had heard an explosion and seen a fireball in the sky that evening.

Deaths confirmed

The prosecutor's office in Metz confirmed on Thursday, 22 October, that both crew members had died, basing the finding on items found at the crash site. Prosecutors said those findings must still be confirmed by DNA analyses to identify the two men. The pilot was 27 years old and had logged 450 flight hours, according to Colonel Pappalardo, who said he was in the qualification phase for operational combat pilot. The navigator, aged 44, was described by the defence ministry as a very experienced officer who had been deployed on external operations in Afghanistan, Mali, Niger, Sudan and Chad. Ludovic Humbert, commander of Air Base 133, said both men held the qualifications their mission required.

Cause still unknown

Investigators have not yet determined what caused the crash, and the prosecutor said no explanation had been ruled in or out. Prosecutor David Touvet put it plainly in comments reported by French media.

We have no idea of the reasons for this accident.

Touvet also said that no hypothesis could be excluded at this stage. It remains unclear whether either crew member started an ejection, although the rocket motors of both ejection seats were found on the ground. Touvet told AFP on Wednesday evening that neither man had time to activate the ejection system before the jet hit the ground, while other reports say investigators cannot yet establish whether either began the process. President Emmanuel Macron expressed the nation's condolences at a press conference in Doha on Wednesday, 21 October.

Background on the aircraft

The Mirage 2000D entered service in 1993 and has been deployed by France in most of the conflicts it has taken part in since then, including Kosovo in 1999, Libya in 2011, and Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and the Sahel. The type has a record of accidents. In January 2019 both crew died during a night low-level flight in the Jura mountains, and in July 2021 the crew ejected safely in the Nancy region. To keep the aircraft flying into the 2030s, the fleet has been given a mid-life upgrade programme.