COLOMBEY-LES-BELLES: Two French pilots died on Wednesday when their Rafale jets collided in mid-air in eastern France, President Emmanuel Macron said, calling it a rare accident involving the state-of-the-art military aircraft.

One pilot was able to eject after the crash over northeastern France, but authorities were desperately searching for the missing instructor and student pilot of the second jet.

“We note with sadness the death of Captain Sebastien Mabire and Lieutenant Matthis Laurens in an air accident during a Rafale training mission,” Macron posted on X, formerly Twitter.

“The nation shares the grief of their families and brothers in arms at Air Base 113 in Saint-Dizier” in eastern France, he added.

“One of the pilots was found safe and sound,” Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu said earlier on X.

The cause of the collision, which authorities said occurred over Colombey-les-Belles, a town in northeastern France, was not immediately clear.

“The military authorities will report on the cause of the accident,” the local prefecture said.

The Rafale supersonic multi-role fighter – which can be used to hunt enemy aircraft, attack ground and sea targets, conduct reconnaissance and even carry French nuclear warheads – has become a best-seller for the French arms industry.

Accidents involving Rafale jets are rare.

“Strange noise”

“We heard a loud noise around 12:30 p.m. (10:30 GMT),” Patrice Bonneaux, deputy mayor of Colombey-les-Belles, told AFP.

It was not the usual sonic boom of a fighter jet breaking the sound barrier, he said. “It was a strange noise, a percussive noise.”

“I assumed two planes had collided, but we didn’t believe it,” he said, adding that a road bordering a nearby forest had been closed.

In December 2007, a Rafale jet crashed near Neuvic in southwest France. Investigators concluded that the pilot had lost his bearings.

This was probably the first crash of a Rafale.

In September 2009, two Rafale aircraft crashed off the coast of Perpignan after a test flight on the return flight to the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle. One pilot died.

France has sold the Rafale to Egypt, India, Greece, Indonesia, Croatia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Lecornu said in January that France had ordered 42 new Rafale fighter jets, the first of which would be delivered in 2027. Since the jet entered service, the French military has now ordered more than 230 Rafales.

Macron has called on the arms industry to boost production and innovation as Europe seeks to increase arms supplies to Ukraine, which has been struggling to fend off the Russian invasion for three years.