PARIS (AP) — Two fighter pilots have died after their Rafale fighter jet collided with another and crashed in northeastern France, the French military said. The pilot of the other jet was thrown from the aircraft and suffered minor injuries.
The two planes collided on Wednesday during a combat maneuver in the Vosges mountains, near the town of Colombey-les-Belles, the Defense Ministry said in a statement late in the day. The pilots who died were an instructor and a trainee on a training mission, it said.
Military and judicial investigations are underway into the causes of the accident.
The pilot of one Rafale was found alive shortly after the crash, but it took hours of searching by gendarmes in the wooded area before they found the two pilots of the other jet.
