French Pilot Dies After Jet Crashes Into Sea During Airshow | On Cam

A pilot died on Friday after the jet he was flying during an airshow in southern France's Lavandou crashed into the Mediterranean sea, authorities said.

A local authority responsible for the Var region said that the body of the pilot had been recovered, Reuters reported.

Notably, the airshow was part of the commemoration event of the 80th anniversary of the Allied forces' D-Day landings in Provence. The airshow also included the French Air Forces' 'Patrouille de France' aerobatics team, which cancelled its demonstration due to the pilot's accident.

French authorities said that an inquiry was underway to examine what caused the accident.

Several videos of the incident have gone viral on social media, which shows the aircraft crashing into the sea shortly before 5 pm (local time).

In the videos, the Fouga Magister aircraft can be seen shooting across the sky at a high speed before crashing into the water, narrowly missing the boats around that region.

Concerns were raised among the rescuers as such planes do not have an ejection seat, meaning that the pilot was trapped in the aircraft.

The incident comes just two days after two French pilots died following the collision of their Rafale jets mid-air in eastern France.

One pilot had ejected from the aircraft after the crash over northeastern France, but authorities had to launch a search operation for a missing instructor and a student pilot on the second jet, The Guardian had reported.

French President Emmanuel Macron had taken to X and said, "We learn with sadness the death of Capt Sebastien Mabire and Lt Matthis Laurens in an air accident in a Rafale training mission. The nation shares the grief of their families and brothers in arm at airbase 113 in Saint-Dizier."

Authorities had however said that it was not immediately clear as to what caused the collision, which took place over the Colombey-les-Belles town.