The French billionaire and politician Olivier Dassault was killed in a helicopter crash. The helicopter with the 69-year-old on board crashed on Sunday near Deauville in northern France. The pilot was also killed. Olivier Dassault was the son of Serge Dassault, who headed the arms company of the same name. His family is one of the richest in France and in the world.
According to the air traffic control authority, the Aerospatiale AS350 Ecureuil (squirrel) machine crashed in sunny weather and weak winds shortly after take-off from private property. Investigations have been launched.
Olivier Dassault belonged to the Republican Party (LR) and sat for them in the National Assembly. French President Emmanuel Macron praised him in the short message service Twitter as a man of many talents and declared: “His brutal death is an enormous loss.”
Prime Minister Jean Castex praised Dassault as a “humanist MP” and a “visionary entrepreneur”. The 69-year-old leaves a family with three children. He was a passionate photographer, pilot and composer.
The Dassaults are among the most influential families in France. The group includes industries such as aerospace, defense, auction, wine and media. The Dassault Aviation Group has been a leading French aircraft manufacturer for 70 years and is behind the Falcon private jet, the Mirage fighter jet and, most recently, the ultra-modern Rafale fighter jet.
Dassault was the grandson of Manuel Bloch, an aviation visionary who was interned in a concentration camp during the Nazi era for his refusal to cooperate with the German aviation industry. Bloch later renamed himself Dassault and founded the Dassault Group.
After the death of his father, Serge Dassault took over the company. When he died of heart failure in his Paris office in 2018, he had not named a successor. Then there were arguments between Olivier and his three siblings. A statement by Olivier that he would be the best candidate for the successor was rejected by his father while he was still alive. Most recently he sat on the supervisory board.
According to an estimate by the US business magazine Forbes, all siblings each have assets of around five billion euros. Olivier Dassault was considered the 361st richest man in the world, along with his two brothers and sisters, according to Forbes' 2020 list.
