A French aviation industry and MP was killed in a helicopter crash with the pilot, authorities said.
Olivier Dassault (69) was heir to a powerful family business that made Falcon private jets and fighter jets from Rafale and owns many other businesses, including the newspaper Le Figaro.
According to the local prosecutor’s office in Lisieux, a forensic investigation into manslaughter is underway on Sunday following the accident in the city of Touques in Normandy.
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The French national airline investigation agency, the BEA, said the Airbus AS350 helicopter crashed just after take-off from a private airport. BEA investigators traveled to the site Monday.
Forbes magazine lists Olivier Dassault as one of the 500 richest people in the world by 2020. He holds executive positions at the family-owned Dassault Group, and has also served in the lower house as a conservative Republican party lawmaker since 2002.
President Emmanuel Macron in a tweet paid tribute to an “industry captain, MP, local elected leader, air force official” and said “his brutal death is a great loss.”