PARIS – French billionaire Olivier Dassault, a politician and scion of the Dassault aircraft-making family, was killed in a helicopter crash yesterday.
Dassault, 69, and a father-of-three, died at about 6pm (1700 GMT) when his helicopter crashed near the upmarket coastal resort of Deauville in northwest France, parliamentary and investigation sources said.
French President Emmanuel Macron led tributes with a tweet: “Olivier Dassault loved France. Captain of industry, local MP, reserve commander in the air force; throughout his life he never stopped serving our country.”
Macron called his death “a great loss”, and sent his condolences to the Dassault family, one of the most influential in France with interests spanning aeronautics, defence, auctioneering, wine and the media.
The Dassault Aviation group has been a leading French plane manufacturer for the last 70 years, and is behind the Falcon private jet, the Mirage warplane, and, most recently, the state-of-the art Rafale fighter.
Forbes magazine estimated that Olivier Dassault was the 361st most wealthy person on the planet last year, with a fortune estimated at around €5 billion (RM24 billion) – around the same as his three siblings.
Involuntary manslaughter inquiry
France’s national air crash investigation agency in a tweet said the crash occurred shortly after take-off from “private grounds”.
The weather in Deauville was sunny with low wind yesterday.
Sources close to the inquiry indicated that the pilot of the helicopter was also killed and that no-one else was on board.
An involuntary manslaughter investigation has been opened by prosecutors.
The civil aviation Investigations and Analysis Bureau said the helicopter, an Aerospatiale AS350 Ecureuil (Squirrel), had crashed “on take-off”.
A search area around the crash site was sealed off and the air transport place put in charge of the enquiry.
French Prime Minister Jean Castex hailed Dassault as “a humanist MP, a visionary entrepreneur, a man deeply committed to his country”.
Richard Ferrand, president of the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament in which Dassault served as a representative for the Oise area of northern France, said he is thinking of Dassault’s family and friends “who must feel terrible pain”. – AFP, March 8, 2021
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