The Air and Space Army family was in mourning this Thursday morning. The BA 118 of Mont-de-Marsan (Landes), hosted the military funeral honors ceremony for Captain Sébastien Mabire and Lieutenant Matthis Laurens, who died on August 14 during an instructional flight in Meurthe-et-Moselle, above the town of Colombey-les-Belles.
In front of several hundred airmen from all the French air bases, and the families of the two victims, the Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu, who promoted the two pilots to the ranks of commander and captain, delivered a vibrant eulogy, and asked “to honor their sacrifice.”
They had “decided to entrust their destinies to the armies and their lives to France”
“Rest assured that we do not forget the price of the lives of these two men who decided to entrust their destinies to the armies and their lives to France,” declared the minister on the tarmac of the air base, in front of the two coffins of the pilots. “This price is that of our freedom, which they defended by committing themselves and which they were preparing to defend wherever duty called them.”
Born in 1988 in Cherbourg (Manche), Commander Sébastien Mabire, married and father of two children, was an instructor at the Rafale “Aquitaine” transformation squadron at the Saint-Dizier air base. He had previously been a fighter pilot at the Cazaux air base (Gironde) and at the Mont-de-Marsan air base. Captain Matthis Laurens, born in 1995 in Brest, had been assigned since 2023 to the 2/30 Normandie-Niemen fighter squadron of the BA 18 in Mont-de-Marsan. He was seconded as a trainee pilot to the Rafale “Aquitaine” transformation squadron in Saint-Dizier.
“They linked their destinies to each other”
Commander Sébastien Mabire “was an exemplary officer, an exceptional aviator, having accomplished 47 war missions, from the Sahel to the Middle East and more recently to the eastern borders of Europe,” recalled Sébastien Lecornu. Captain Matthis Laurens “was driven by this same passion, he who joined the armed forces following his father’s example.” He had come to Saint-Dizier “to follow his training”, and was considered by his superiors as a pilot “with very high potential, destined to serve the success of France’s weapons in all latitudes.”
“A unique bond united them,” the minister continued, “combining the demands of an instructor for his trainee and the brotherhood of arms that unites two knights of the sky. By regularly flying together in the same plane, they linked their destinies to each other.”
“There is no normal flight”
The two fighter pilots took off shortly after 9 a.m. on Wednesday, August 14, from the tarmac of Air Base 113 in Saint-Dizier. “In front of them shone the fuselage of Lieutenant Colonel François Chausson’s Rafale, recognized throughout the Air Force as an exceptional officer.” The two planes collided “during a combat maneuver,” the Ministry of the Air and Space Forces said. The pilot of the first Rafale ejected and was recovered with minor injuries by rescue services. “All three of them went on patrol, for training in in-flight refueling and aerial combat,” the minister added in his speech. An investigation has been opened to determine the circumstances of the collision.
The minister also recalled that “war is raging again in Europe and the Middle East,” that “terrorist threats are still present.” “Never since the end of the Cold War have so many risks weighed on our nation, and everyone here knows that in the face of most of these dangers, control of the skies is key.”
“Each pilot prepares for it and fully assumes the prospect: hunting is a demanding and dangerous profession, in operations as well as in training,” continued Sébastien Lecornu. “It sometimes mows down one of its own, a leader, a friend, a son… It took two pilots from us this Wednesday, August 14, two brothers in arms, because there is no such thing as a normal flight.”
Both pilots were awarded the rank of knight of the National Order of Merit and the aeronautical medal.