A spectacular accident occurred yesterday, on Tuesday 25 March, when two Dassault Alpha Jet E aircraft of the Armée de l'Air et de l'Espace (French Air and Space Force), operated by the Patrouille de France, collided during a training flight with seven aircraft near Air Base 113 in Saint-Dizier, in the Haute-Marne region.

According to the Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, the accident occurred at 3:35 pm. The rescue services were mobilized immediately after the collision. Fortunately, all three occupants of the two aircraft -the two pilots and a passenger, also apparently the pilot- managed to eject and were found alive and conscious. One of the two planes crashed into a concrete company, while the other fell into a nearby marshy woodland area. The authorities later confirmed that the three were classified by the rescuers as "relative emergencies". Two of them were taken to the hospital in Saint-Dizier, while the third, who suffered multiple traumas, was taken care of by military doctors. There were no casualties on the ground.

The mayor of Saint-Dizier described the scene as dramatic, with a concrete company silo on fire and several firefighting teams trying to put out the blaze. The Haute-Marne prefecture, led by Régine Pam, activated the Sater (Aero-Terrestrial Rescue) plan, an emergency protocol for the search and rescue of civil and military aircraft. The Armée de l'Air announced a few hours after the accident that it had started clean-up and restoration operations on the territory, as well as internal investigations by AAE 3, technicians and the search section of the air and space gendarmerie.

The French Aerobatic Team (Patrouille de France) was founded in 1953, and is known worldwide for its displays, which are particularly spectacular during the July 14 parade. The unit is made up of carefully selected fighter pilots, and accidents are rare. The last major accident was in 2019, when a plane skidded off the runway in Perpignan without serious consequences for the pilot.

The Dassault-Dornier Alpha Jet is a twin-engined light attack and advanced trainer aircraft of Franco-German design, produced by Dassault Aviation and Dornier-Werke GmbH between the 1970s and 1980s. The "E" is the trainer variant originally used by the French Armée de l'air and other air forces, with 277 produced.

Authorities have launched an investigation to determine the exact circumstances of the accident. 

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