Although it did not explode in the same way as a normal bomb, it fell from the Mirage 2000D and dropped on the ground, causing a huge noise, the witnesses explained.

Two workers at the Faurecia automobile parts factory in Nogent-sur-Vernisson were injured on Apr. 10 when an inert bomb fell off from a Mirage 2000D fighter bomber.

The incident took place at around 3:20pm local time and a witness said the noise from the impact was louder than the noise of the jets flying overhead.

The inert bomb was made of metal and plastic, and contained no explosives.

Although it did not explode in the same way as a normal bomb, it fell from the Mirage 2000D and dropped on the ground, causing a huge noise, the witnesses explained.

“The detonation was pretty loud – it drowned out the noise of the two planes that were flying over. We saw the fire brigade and the gendarmerie arrive,” the witness said to The Connexion.

French Air Force (l’Armée de l’Air) spokesperson Olivier Celo said: “We cannot explain the reasons for this drop [at the moment]; it is a very rare thing to happen.”

The cause of the accident is under investigation by both the national military prosecutor’s office and the defence accident agency le Bureau Enquête Accident Défense (BEAD).

The Mirage 2000 is the last member of the successful French Mirage fighter aircraft family. It was deployed in 1983 by the French Air Force and since then it has been purchased by many other countries all over the world such as Egypt, Greece, India, Peru, Qatar, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates. According Deagel.com more than 526 Mirage 2000s have been sold worldwide.

The two-seat Mirage 2000D is a derivative of proven Mirage 2000N designed to perform precision attack missions. The aircraft features strengthened wings for low-altitude operations, Spirale integrated countermeasures system and Damocles targeting pod for guided-precision weapons delivery, as well as low-level precision navigation/attack systems, built around the Dassault/Thales Antilope 5 radar, which was designed for the strike role and featured a terrain-avoidance capability.

This article by Dario Leone originally appeared on The Aviation Geek Club in 2018.

Image: Wikimedia.