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French billionaire MP Olivier Dassault killed in helicopter crash
Dassault was grandson of famed French Jewish aeronautical engineer Marcel Bloch who survived being sent to Buchenwald death camp for refusing to help the Nazis
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Dassault was grandson of famed French Jewish aeronautical engineer Marcel Bloch who survived being sent to Buchenwald death camp for refusing to help the Nazis.
PARIS — 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, defense, 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.