A multi-billionaire French MP who set numerous world airspeed records has died in a helicopter crash in northern France.
Olivier Dassault, 69, who was the eldest son of the late French billionaire Serge Dassault, had been flying over Touques, near Deauville in the Normandy region, when his AS350 Squirrel came down on Sunday at around 5.50pm.
The father-of-three, who was heir to the Dassault Aviation fortune, died alongside the helicopter's pilot.
'They had just taken off, when the helicopter got into difficulty and came down on private land,' said an investigating source.
Mr Dassault was returning to Paris following a weekend in the English Channel resort of Deauville, where he owned a holiday home.