French Mirage 2000 lost during training...

[N_Molson]

During a training flight over the French territory, a Mirage 2000 was lost ! It disappeared from the radar screens, the wingman which was 2 kilometers away didn't see anything, searches have reported no crash site, and no crash of fire was reported by people !! :blink:

This happened over a low populated area (Creuse), but I mean, it happened in Europe, you find a village every 5 kilometers at worst !!

 

[Artlav]

Mid-air explosion, with plane turned to fine dust?

Someone screwed up, and won't admit it?

Newsmen misinterpreting things?

Plane fell into a lake or marsh?

 

[N_Molson]

Well, looks like this happened last evening ; a hundred of policemen and soldiers searched the area all the night long and didn't report anything like a fire or debris... There's no big lakes in the area, but hills and forests.

Oh yeah and it was a Mirage 2000-N, N for Nuclear of course... It could have been carrying nuclear weapons. :s

 

[SiberianTiger]

Oh yeah and it was a Mirage 2000-N, N for Nuclear of course... It could have been carrying nuclear weapons. :s

... defected to Gaddafi? :uhh:

 

[Urwumpe]

Oh yeah and it was a Mirage 2000-N, N for Nuclear of course... It could have been carrying nuclear weapons. :s

Broken Arrow?

 

[C3PO]

I guess they just made a good choice for the training area.

"On a identifié une zone de cratère, où il y a visiblement eu un crash", a déclaré un porte-parole du Sirpa Air.

"We have identified an area of the crater, where there obviously was a crash," said a spokesman Sirpa Air.

 

[N_Molson]

Here are more precisions :

L'épave du Mirage 2000 de la base aérienne 116 de Luxeuil-les-Bains (Haute-Saône) disparu depuis hier soir des radars au-dessus de la Creuse, a été retrouvée ce matin, à l'est du département. L'appareil est tombé près d'un étang et, "en heurtant le sol, a fait un énorme cratère qui s'est rempli d'eau", compliquant les recherches près de l'appareil.

Le pilote et le navigateur de l'appareil sont portés disparus. Toutefois, le procureur de la République de Guéret a indiqué ce soir que des fragments humains ont été retrouvés aux abords du cratère formé par le crash.

"The Mirage 2000 wreckage has been found this morning. The aircraft hit the ground near a pond, and this created a huge crater which was flooded quickly, making very difficult to identify debris".

The pilot and the navigator are missing. The "procureur de la République" (the civilian magistrate who leads the investigations) declared however that "human debris have been found near the crater", which makes their death almost certain."

Nothing about a "Broken Arrow" situation, but, if that was the case, the army would do everything to keep the thing secret. Notice that the first searches were conducted during the night, and that the medias got the first informations on the morning... We'll never know I guess.

However, "a huge crater" and very small debris seem to show that the aircraft hit the ground with an extreme vertical speed. It's surprising that the both crewmen were unable to eject. Maybe a problem with the oxygen supply or something like that ??

 

[Urwumpe]

However, "a huge crater" and very small debris seem to show that the aircraft hit the ground with an extreme vertical speed. It's surprising that the both crewmen were unable to eject. Maybe a problem with the oxygen supply or something like that ??

Must not be that... if the crew practiced NOE flight there, it could also be a possible controlled flight into terrain. Most debris could still have fallen into the lake after the initial impact.

 

[Artlav]

So, it essentially fell into the lake.

If the training was at night, it could have been disorientation for some reason.
I read stories about a pilot flying in dense clouds finding himself loosing altitude quickly, and barely ejecting in time (at supersonic speeds).

 

[N_Molson]

The flight took place in late evening, it was a night with dense fog. So a failing radar altimeter could be guilty too.

"étang" doesn't exactly mean "lake". It's usually a small piece of water with very shallow waters (you can't navigate on it except with a small, flat-hulled boat). In fact, looking on Google Earth, the only pieces of water near the village where it fell (actually the aircraft fell into a field) are small ponds used to make the cows/pigs/sheeps drink.

The crater has a diameter of 25 meters blink and was probably larger than the piece of water itself. More details come in, it seems that the "main" debris of the aircraft are buried in the ground, most of it seems to have been vaporized during the impact which seems to have been extremely violent. Seems again that the angle of the aircraft with the ground was very high when the impact took place.

---------- Post added at 08:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:25 PM ----------

The objective of the training mission was flying fast at low altitude in 0 visibility conditions. A dangerous one but the both were experienced 30 year-old pilots.

 

[Urwumpe]

The objective of the training mission was flying fast at low altitude in 0 visibility conditions. A dangerous one but the both were experienced 30 year-old pilots.

And now they bought it.

A risk remains a risk, especially if you take a uncontrolled one.

 

[n72.75]

Another unpleasant reminder of the dangers involved with such operations.