ZCZC
BFF-04
FRANCE-AVIATION-DASSAULT-ACCIDENT
French billionaire MP Olivier Dassault dies in helicopter crash
PARIS, March 8, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – French billionaire Olivier Dassault, a
politician and scion of the Dassault aircraft-making family, was killed in a
helicopter crash on Sunday.
Dassault, 69 and a father-of-three, died around 6 pm (1700 GMT) when his
helicopter crashed near the upmarket coastal resort of Deauville in northwest
France, parliamentary and investigation sources told AFP.
French President Emmanuel Macron led tributes, saying in a tweet that
“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 in 2020, with a fortune estimated at around five billion
euros ($6 billion) — around the same as his three siblings.
– Involuntary manslaughter inquiry –
France’s national air crash investigation agency, the BEA, said in a tweet
that the crash had occurred shortly after take-off from “private grounds”.
The weather in Deauville was sunny with low wind on Sunday.
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 was opened by prosecutors.
The civil aviation Bureau of Investigations and Analysis said in a tweet
that 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 was thinking of Dassault’s family and friends “who
must feel terrible pain”.
– Famed family –
Olivier was the grandson of Marcel Bloch, a famed aeronautical engineer who
changed his name to “Dassault” which means “on the attack” in French.
After helping to develop an innovative propeller used on French aircraft in
World War I, Marcel was imprisoned during World War II and deported to a Nazi
concentration camp after refusing to collaborate with Germany’s aviation
industry.
Control of Dassault Aviation passed to Olivier’s father Serge, but he had
not named an heir to succeed him when he died in 2018 after suffering heart
failure at his Paris office.
Olivier once declared himself “the most qualified” of Serge’s four
children, earning a stern public rebuke from his father.
He appeared to be on track to take the reins but shortly before his
father’s death he resigned as chairman of the group’s supervisory board
because he said the role was incompatible with his parliamentary duties.
Many of Dassault’s colleagues on the political right paid tribute to a man
who was also a passionate photographer, a pilot, and a composer of music.
As well as a majority stake in the family’s aviation group, the Dassaults
own their own vineyard in Bordeaux and the influential right-wing newspaper
Le Figaro.
BSS/AFP/MSY/0839 hrs