Two French military planes have crashed in mid-air over the Saint-Dizier airbase – We’ll be bringing you the very latest updates, pictures and video on this breaking news story.
Two French military planes crashed in mid-air over the Saint-Dizier airbase on Tuesday afternoon as the pilots were forced to bail out.
Footage of the incident was posted on X by a user who wrote: “Accident involving two Patrouille de France Alpha Jets over the Saint-Dizier airbase in the north east of France. The pilots bailed out. Let’s hope that there were no casualties. The emergency services are already on site.”
The incident occurred on at around 15:40pm near Air Base 113, during a training drill including seven Alpha Jets. At least three people were involved in the collision, including a pilot who was taken to hospital.
The Patrouille de France is a French Air Force aerobatic team responsible for plane demonstrations – similar to the British Red Arrows. The French Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, confirmed the crash.
He said in a post: “Emergency services are being mobilized, and coordination is being ensured between the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of the Armed Forces.”
In the two clips posted, one shows two planes careering towards the ground as pilots appear to eject from the aircrafts. A second video shows the same incident but from farther away as red, blue and white flares are seen trailing in the sky.
The crash caused damage to a company building after the planes hit the ground. The Calin company in Villiers-en-Lieu was affected by the crash and a fire started. One of the planes crashed into the Calin silos in Saint-Dizier, while the other is thought to have landed in a canal.
A nighttime exercise was also scheduled to take place later tonight but it’s unclear if this will now go ahead. The city of Saint-Dizier said last week that the French Aerobatic Patrol would be present from Monday, March 24 to Friday, March 28, for training sessions every day between 11am and 12pm and then between 3pm and 4pm, subject to weather conditions.
“They were performing a demonstration when two touched in flight,” one witness said. The Air Force team confirmed that both pilots and one passenger were able to eject and were “found conscious”.