The aircraft, belonging to the tactical air force, was conducting a training and shooting flight as part of the Cazaux Air Base. Last night, the exact reasons for this accident were unknown, which reportedly occurred while the plane was flying at a steep dive angle.
During this training exercise, the Jaguar from Saint-Dizier was armed with two 400-kilogram bombs, which were not detonated by the impact. It took the intervention of a demining team from Mérignac to defuse them. This information, gathered on-site, was not confirmed by military authorities. Around thirty gendarmes from local brigades were setting up a security perimeter.
After the accident, law enforcement kept all loggers and onlookers away, while firefighters and explosives experts from the Landes Testing Center in Captieux, equipped with two carbon dioxide foam trucks, made sure no fires broke out.
The pilot, a 24-year-old whose identity was not revealed, was already experienced with 400 hours of flight time. He was part of the Provence squadron, based at the BA 113 in Saint-Dizier, a unit that arrived at Cazaux earlier in the week to carry out an annual training exercise.
