Three people were injured after two jets from the French Air Force‘s acrobatics team collided near an air base in northeastern France on Tuesday, authorities confirmed.
Videos of the incident circulating on social media show the two aircraft colliding mid-air before plummeting straight down. The footage also captures smoke rising from the site just after the collision.
The Alpha Jet planes are believed to have crashed mid-air near a military base west of Saint-Dizier, the French Air and Space Force told AFP. The collision resulted in both pilots and a passenger ejecting from their aircraft. All three were “found conscious” following the incident, according to military sources.
One of the injured individuals sustained multiple injuries, a source told AFP. Meanwhile, one of the jets crashed into a silo, sparking a fire, but there were no civilian casualties reported.
Emergency response teams were immediately deployed to the scene. “Emergency services have been mobilised,” Defence minister Sébastien Lecornu confirmed in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
The Alpha Jet, a twin-engine aircraft, has been used by France for training Ukrainian pilots following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
This accident comes after a tragic incident in August 2024, when two French pilots lost their lives following a collision between their Rafale fighter jets in eastern France a rare mishap involving the country’s advanced military aircraft.