Two dead in fighter plane crash

A French Mirage fighter plane collided in mid-air with a microlight aircraft during a training flight yesterday in central France, killing the two people on the microlight, the French army said.

The collision occurred at around 0730 GMT as two Mirage 2000 N planes from the Istres air base in southern France were conducting a patrol at 500 feet over the Puy-de-Dome region, the French army's public information service said in a statement. "At that altitude, they use visual flight rules because the radars are not able to detect an aircraft," it said.

The two-seater microlight aircraft, which left from Ambert halfway between the cities of Clermont-Ferrand and Saint-Etienne, crashed in sparsely populated terrain some 20 kilometres southeast of Thiers, killing both passengers.

The damaged Mirage landed safely at the airport in Clermont-Ferrand.

Some 30 police officers were at the scene of the crash to recover debris. Local police have opened a probe into the incident.