A French Air Force Mirage 2000 fighter jet crashed on Wednesday, January 9 in a mountainous region of eastern France, but the fate of its two pilots remains unknown.
“We’re looking for this plane which disappeared from the radars” in the Jura, the prefecture administration said earlier.
Officials said the plane vanished from radar at around 11 a.m. local time (1000 GMT), shortly after taking off from Nancy-Ochey air base, the BBC reported.
Snow and low visibility were hampering the search, officials said, with no news from the pilots.
L’est Republican newspaper reported that debris including a parachute had been found between Doubs and the Jura, near the border with Switzerland.
Search and rescue teams later found the wreckage, AFP reported
France 3 reported that the jet was one of a two-ship patrol, and the other aircraft returned to base.
The plane, understood to be a Mirage 2000D, was unarmed.
The last deadly crash involving a 2000 Mirage fighter occurred in France in 2011
The Dassault Mirage 2000 is a French single-engine fighter jet designed in the late 1970s. The later Mirage 2000D is a strike variant.
French Mirage 2000 jets are deployed on active service in support of Operation Barkhane in the Sahel.
With reporting from AFP. This post was updated to include that wreckage was found.