He was to celebrate his 33rd birthday this Monday, May 22. Valentin Petit, from Bourges, died following a plane crash in Switzerland on Saturday May 20. The director flew from La Chaux-de-Fonds, in the canton of Neuchâtel, for a tour of Switzerland in a tourist plane. Around 10:20 a.m., the plane crashed in “a forest area, in an area difficult to access”, according to the Neuchâtel police. The pilot, a septuagenarian from Neuchâtel, Valentin Petit and the person who accompanied him, aged around 30, died. “It was a birthday present that a relative had given him”, specifies his father, Didier.
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Didier and Lydie Petit, his “devastated” parents, learned the news on Sunday. This Monday, they evoke a son “passionate and creative, who had given himself the means to live the life he wanted”. “He died as he lived, at full speed. As a child, he was already a little daredevil,” recalls another family member.
From skateboarding to video
A fan of motocross between the ages of 12 and 20, Valentin Petit was also passionate about skateboarding, which he practiced with his friends in Bourges. One of them, Mickaël Mériau, remembers: “He was a very funny person, who loved adventure and video. One day, he broke his wrist while riding a bicycle and started filming at the skatepark. He threw himself into it, because he was like that, Valentin, until he became a reference in the profession.” Another childhood friend, Vincent De La Rue, remembers: “He was an excellent skater and an even better director. where he built himself a hell of a CV. He gave me a lot of help on video projects, another passion that we had in common, and I can’t thank him enough.”
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A hard worker at the head of the Ocurens production company, Valentin Petit had made a name for himself in the world of filmmaking. Advertising spots for brands such as Puma or Adidas, production of the Balmain fashion show at Charles-de-Gaulle airport or even production of music videos for French artists, such as Raphaël or Nekfeu, and international artists, such as A$ AP Ferg and Pharell Williams, the thirties had a prestigious CV. “He lived at 200 an hour, underlines his father. He carried out many projects and he was always one step ahead.” Valentin Petit had just spent a few days in Cape Town, South Africa, and was to go to London on Monday, “to receive prizes for some of his achievements”, specifies Didier.
He did not forget his roots in Bourges
After having visited all of Europe, New Zealand or even “the United States up and down and across”, the young director did not forget his Berruyère roots. “He was very family, very close to his parents” and to his brother, Victor, five years his senior, testifies one of his relatives. “It was difficult to corner him”, smiles, despite the tears, his father, who evokes an anecdote: “He had come to see us and had taken 2 hours to go running. When he came back, he showed me his telephone: he had received 434 messages!”
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Fabrice Bridier, former owner of the Les Jacobins pub, in Bourges, where Valentin Petit had his habits: “With him, we talked about cycling, but especially cars. He loved it and, as he knew that I also liked beautiful cars, he would take me for a ride in his Ford Mustang. Valentin was someone who, despite his success, had remained humble, simple, natural. As soon as he returned to Bourges, he would drop by our place. He had promised to come see us in Berry-Bouy (where with Sarah, his wife, Fabrice now runs the bar-tobacco-press, editor’s note). How sad !”
For his father and his mother, “who loved him more than anything”, a new ordeal begins now. “We will have to recover the body, which must first be autopsied, to bring it home, explains his father. I did not think I would have to face this ordeal one day.” An investigation is opened by the Public Ministry of the Confederation (MPC), “competent for the prosecution of crimes and offenses committed on board an aircraft”. Contacted, the MPC indicates: “The investigators of the Swiss Security Investigation Service (SESE), competent to determine the cause of the aviation accidents, went on site for the technical findings” supported by “investigators from the federal police. The investigation must make it possible to determine the exact causes of the accident.
Marion Berard and Benjamin Gardel
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