Dassault Rafale fighters Photo from open sources
In France, two military planes collided during a training flight, BFMTV reports. The incident took place in the Colombet-les-Belles sector, in the Mertes-et-Moselle department. One of the pilots managed to eject before the collision and was uninjured, but the instructor pilot and student pilot in the second plane were missing.
“We are still looking for a second crew,” a spokesman for the French Air Force told AFP in an interview.
The prefecture of Mert-et-Moselle said that immediately after the incident, the departmental operations center was activated, as well as the SATER (air-ground rescue) plan, which provides for the support of military forces in such cases, was implemented.
The gendarmerie, the fire and rescue service, the National Forestry Administration and ADRASEC (National Federation of Radio Amateurs in the Civil Security Service) are participating in the search and rescue operation. Their efforts are currently focused on finding the missing crew of the second plane.
The prefecture also said the military leadership would prepare a report on the cause of the accident.
According to the army, all the pilots who participated in the training are French citizens. Although the Ukrainian pilots are trained in France, they are based at the Kazo base in the southwest of the country and train on Alpha-Jet fighters, so this incident does not affect their program.
