The Metz prosecutor’s office confirmed on Thursday that both crew members of a Mirage 2000D fighter jet that crashed Tuesday evening near Nancy have died. The aircraft went down as it returned from a night training flight, and the cause of the accident remains unknown.
“I am able to tell you today that the elements discovered in the accident zone allow us to confirm two deaths,” the prosecutor’s office, which is leading the investigation, said in a statement. It added that the findings “must however be corroborated by DNA analyses currently under way for identification purposes.”
No Time to Eject
Prosecutor David Touvet told AFP on Wednesday evening that neither the pilot nor his navigator had time to eject before the aircraft hit the ground. The motors of the ejection seats were found at the crash site.
The victims were identified by the Ministry of the Armed Forces as Lieutenant Quentin Klysz, 27, the pilot, and Lieutenant-Colonel Antranig Sarkissian, 44, a weapons systems officer serving as navigator. Both died “in commanded air service” during the night training flight, the ministry said. President Emmanuel Macron had announced on Wednesday that the pilot’s body had been recovered.
Experienced Crew, Unestablished Cause
Lieutenant-Colonel Sarkissian was assigned to the Saint-Dizier air base in Haute-Marne and had logged 55 combat missions and 2,200 flight hours. According to the ministry, he had been “deployed many times in external operations” in Afghanistan, Mali, Niger, Sudan and Chad.
Lieutenant Klysz had been assigned since August 2025 to the Nancy-Ochey air base within the 3/3 Ardennes fighter squadron. He had “450 flight hours” and was “in the process of qualifying as an operational combat pilot,” according to Colonel David Pappalardo, spokesman for the French Air and Space Force.
The causes of the crash are still to be established by judicial and safety investigations, the ministry said. The aircraft went down at around 10:40 p.m. “at the end of the tactical phase of the training” as it returned under night instrument conditions, after air traffic control lost radio and radar contact with the jet, Colonel Pappalardo said.
About the Mirage 2000D
The Mirage 2000D is a two-seat ground-attack combat aircraft that entered service in 1993. To remain in service until the 2030s, the 2000D fleet underwent a so-called “mid-life” renovation, the fiftieth and final upgraded example of which was delivered to the Air and Space Force in June.
