French aviation billionaire, pilot die in helicopter crash
A judicial inquiry for eventual manslaughter charges is underway
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A French billionaire aviation industrialist and member of parliament has died in a helicopter crash along with the pilot, authorities said.
Olivier Dassault, 69, was heir to a powerful family business empire that made Falcon private jets and Rafale fighter planes and owned many other businesses including Le Figaro newspaper.
A judicial inquiry for eventual manslaughter charges is underway after Sunday’s crash in the town of Touques in Normandy, according to the regional prosecutor’s office in Lisieux.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}French member of parliament Olivier Dassault smiles in Paris on Sept 1, 2014. (AP Photo/Jacques Brinon, File)
The French national air accident investigation agency, the BEA, said the helicopter crashed just after takeoff from a private airfield.
BEA investigators were traveling to the site Monday.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Forbes magazine listed Olivier Dassault as one of the world’s top 500 richest people in 2020.
He held executive positions at the family-owned Dassault Group as well as serving in the lower house of parliament as a lawmaker from the conservative Republicans party since 2002.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}President Emmanuel Macron paid homage in a tweet to a "captain of industry, parliament member, local elected leader, air force reserve officer" and said, "his brutal death is a great loss."