ATAC Mirage F1 N633AX crashed

In an official press release the United States Air Force announced that a contracted Dassault Mirage F1 fighter has crashed on 10 February 2022, at 11:05 hrs local time in the morning. The aircraft had taken off from Luke AFB (AZ) and was on a routine training mission.

The USAF report initially gave an unpopulated area near Gila Bend as crash site, but this later turned out to be incorrect. The Mirage actually impacted the ground near Buckeye (AZ) and was completely destroyed. The pilot was able to safely eject. The cause of the incident is under investigation.

The Mirage concerned belonged to the inventory of Advantage Tactical Advantage Company (ATAC). ATAC is one of the companies employed by the USAF for adversary training.

Though we initially reported that the crashed Mirage was N610AX, it has now been confirmed by ASN (Aviation Safety Network) that ATAC lost N633AX. The Mirage F1CR once served the Armée de l’Air et de l'Espace (AdlA, French Air and Space  Force) as '653'. It was officially registered to ATAC on 29 November 2018.

Photo by Dan Stijovich via AirHistory.net