1er REG: Legionnaire Died During Training | French Foreign Legion Information

On the night of May 4–5, 2026, a legionnaire of the French Foreign Legion’s 1st Foreign Engineer Regiment (1er REG) died during a night military diving exercise in the Maine River in Angers, western France. A second French soldier also died in the same incident.

Foreign Legion - 1er REG - Legionnaire Died During Training - Sergeant Bin Chen - combat diver

Sergeant Bin Chen, assigned to the 1er REG based in Laudun, southern France, was one of two soldiers who drowned during a combat diver training course on the night of Monday to Tuesday. The other victim was Senior Corporal Axel Deplanque of the 6th Engineer Regiment in Angers.

The exercise began at 11 p.m. (23.00) as part of a freshwater training module. At some point during the dive, contact with the two soldiers was lost. According to local reports, the divers may have become trapped in a cavity of a bridge pier beneath the Pont de la Basse-Chaîne, which spans the river. By the time emergency services arrived at 3:30 a.m., both soldiers were in cardiac arrest. They were pronounced dead at the University Hospital of Angers.

The diving course had started at the naval base in Saint-Mandrier, on the Mediterranean coast, before moving to Angers for freshwater training.

Sergeant Bin Chen (33) was born on August 6, 1992, in Hanzhong, China. He enlisted in the Foreign Legion in early July 2016 and trained at the 4th Foreign Regiment (4e RE) in Castelnaudary. He then served with the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment (2e REP) in Corsica before joining the engineer regiment. Qualified as a sapper and combat diver, he deployed on multiple operations, including in Mali, French Guiana, and during the 2024 Paris Olympics.

General Pierre Schill, the French Army Chief of Staff, expressed condolences to the families of both soldiers.

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