PARIS (AP) – 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 under way after Sunday´s crash in the town of Touques in Normandy, according to the regional prosecutor´s office in Lisieux.
The French national air accident investigation agency, the BEA, said the Airbus AS350 helicopter crashed just after takeoff from a private airfield. BEA investigators were traveling to the site Monday.
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.
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.”