A French navy diving unit has located the wreckage of a crashed Dassault Rafale fighter with its missing pilot still inside, after a search effort lasting almost one week.
DGA procurement agency test pilot François Duflot was killed on 24 September after his aircraft was involved in a suspected mid-air collision with another Rafale. The pair were completing a test flight staged from the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle when the accident happened around 30km (16nm) east of Perpignan.
One pilot was rescued by helicopter shortly after ejecting over the Mediterranean Sea, while a major search mounted for Duflot was called off after a three-day period.
The French navy confirms that its personnel located the downed fighter and its pilot late on 30 September, located at a depth of about 700m (2,300ft) and some 35km east of Cape Bear.
Source: Flight International
