Pluvigner air crash
Belgian Armed Forces General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon · Engine problems
From Florennes Air Base (EBFS) to Base d'aéronautique navale de Lann-Bihoué
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Occurrence
- Event fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 2
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 2
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Military
General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon
- Aircraft type
- General Dynamics F-16
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- Unknown
- Operator
- Belgian Armed Forces
- Onboard fatalities
- 0
- Route
- From Florennes Air Base (EBFS)To Base d'aéronautique navale de Lann-Bihoué
Approximate · Estimated position: Pluvigner, the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
In the Pluvigner air crash, on 19 September 2019 at 10:33 a two-seat F-16B of the Belgian Air Force crashed in the French town of Pluvigner, in Brittany. The two pilots managed to free themselves from the crashing aircraft by means of their ejection seats and survived the crash.
The fighter aircraft involved was a two-seat F-16B built in 1983 and was used as a training aircraft. In the morning the aircraft had taken off from Florennes Air Base in Belgium, bound for the Base d'aéronautique navale de Lann-Bihoué, an air force base near Lorient, located on the Gulf of Morbihan in Brittany, in the west of France. The aircraft crashed in Pluvigner at 10:33, 1 hour and 8 minutes after takeoff, 30 kilometres from its destination. Just before the crash the crew had reported engine problems. At that moment the aircraft was flying at an altitude of 500 metres.
The first pilot managed to land without problems. The other pilot, however, got stuck with his parachute in a 250 kV high-voltage cable. The local fire brigade managed to free him with the assistance of technicians from the local electricity company. The pilots were taken to a nearby hospital as a precaution, but were soon able to leave the hospital again. Both had only minor injuries. The family members of the two pilots were brought to France by Belgian Defence that same day.
In the crash the roof of a house was destroyed, after which the aircraft came down 50 metres from this house and an explosion followed. Residents within a radius of 500 metres around the wreck were evacuated. There were no casualties on the ground.
All missions of the Belgian Air Force that day were suspended. Minister of Defence Didier Reynders (MR) announced an investigation into the cause of the crash.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Dutch Wikipedia article “Vliegtuigongeluk bij Pluvigner” (revision 54637172, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
Sources
Dutch Wikipedia article: Vliegtuigongeluk bij Pluvigner
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 54637172 · 2019-09-23 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q68103851
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- nl Wikipedia article "Vliegtuigongeluk bij Pluvigner" (page 5252690, revision 54637172), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from Wikidata (P17)
- Map position
- place the Wikipedia infobox site links (Wikidata coordinates)
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- operator is an armed force according to Wikidata
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Dutch Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.