An investigation into involuntary manslaughter has been opened the day after the crash of a private helicopter which left two dead in the Var region.
“The first investigations would allow us to consider an engine failure of the aircraft which caused the crash”. The Draguignan prosecutor communicated this Thursday, June 27 afternoon, the day after the crash of a helicopter which caused the death of its two occupants the previous evening in Saint-Raphaël.
The prosecution specifies that “witness hearings are underway” and that “the bodies of the victims were sent to the legal medicine institute in Nice, with a view to their autopsy”. The pilot and his co-pilot were Ukrainian nationals.
Both men were killed instantly, ejected from the plane when it hit the ground. “The investigation initiated blatantly was entrusted to the inter-regional national police directorate in co-referral with the services of the air transport gendarmerie brigade, the charge of involuntary homicide”specifies the Draguignan prosecutor.
Investigators from the Bureau of Investigation and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) also went to the scene to try to determine the causes of the crash.
The tragedy occurred shortly before 6 p.m., less than 10 minutes after the helicopter, a Bell 505 Ranger X registered T7-VIT, took off from Cannes-Mandelieu airport.
The aircraft flew over the sea along the coast towards the west, before heading north at Dramont.
