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Mirage 2000D - Nigel Woolley
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Mirage 2000D latest: French air force says pilot
and navigator on missing fighter jet are dead
The
two pilots who were in a fighter jet when
it crashed near the Swiss border have died, French authorities have said.
The Mirage 2000D vanished from radar on
Wednesday while flying in a snowstorm near the Swiss border, over a mountainous
area between the Doubs and Jura regions.
More than 100 rescuers, police officers and
others searched icy mountains for the aircraft and the two-person crew.
The French air force said on Thursday night that
the pair had died and identified them as Captain Baptiste Chirie, a combat
pilot with 24 war missions, and Lieutenant Audrey Michelon, an arms systems
navigator who participated in 97 war missions.
The air force did not say what led to the
declaration of their deaths.
Defence Minister Florence Parly and the chief of
the French air force, General Philippe Lavigne, planned to head on Friday to
the air base in Nancy, in eastern France, to meet with aviators and families, a
statement said.
The jet took off shortly after 11am local time
on Wednesday from the Nancy-Ochey air base in north-east France.
Regional newspaper L'Est Republicain reported
yesterday that debris, a parachute and a map had been found in the search.
According to the paper one local resident
"heard the plane around 10:15 am. This is a busy corridor and they often
go very low, but suddenly I heard a thud and then nothing."
Source: www.standard.co.uk
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