Olivier Dassault, 69-year-old French billionaire and politician from the conservative Les Republicains Party, was killed in a helicopter crash, news agency Reuters reported. The crash reportedly happened near his holiday home in Normandy. Olivier, who is valued at $7 billion, is a scion of the family that owns Dassault Aviation, the company that built the Rafale fighter jets that India recently purchased. The eldest son of Serge Dassault and the heir apparent, Olivier stepped down from all executive positions in the company ahead of his political entry to avoid any conflict of interest.
"Olivier Dassault loved France. Captain of industry, lawmaker, local elected official, reserve commander in the air force: during his life, he never ceased to serve our country, to value its assets. His sudden death is a great loss. Thoughts on his family and loved ones," French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on Twitter.
Dassault Aviation designs and builds military aircraft, business jets and space systems. They were involved in the New Generation Fighter developed within the joint European program FCAS (Future Combat Air System), designed and built the Rafale multirole fighter, capable of handling all types of missions for both air forces and naval air arms, and designed the nEUROn combat drone. They also have the Falcon family of business jets in their arsenal.