The family of a sound engineer, who died in the helicopter accident on the shooting of Dropped (TF1) in March 2015 in Argentina, demanded this Thursday recognition by the courts of the "inexcusable fault" of the company of production, who denies it. The widow and the two sons of Edouard Gilles attack SAS Adventure Line Productions (ALP) before the social pole of the Laon court and claim several hundreds of thousands of euros in damages.
ALP, the employer of this man then six months from retirement, had an "obligation of security and risk prevention", which does not "delegate", recalled the family's lawyer, Maître Gérald Chalon, considering that the company failed in this obligation, without "no protocol", nor "no flight plan". The collision between the two helicopters, shortly after takeoff, on March 9, 2015 had claimed the lives of ten people including three high-level French athletes, the navigator Florence Arthaud, the boxer Alexis Vastine and the swimmer Camille Muffat.
Unsuitable aircraft
"It was the production company that made the decision to fly on patrol, a very close military flight technique, of the two helicopters [...] Nicolas Roussel (production manager) was on site, he gave the directives" , he assured. He stated that these public aircraft were not allowed, according to local regulations, to carry out this type of flight with passengers.
But according to the defense, ALP took all the "measures to protect employees and participants from danger", by calling on a "filming professional", the company Sax Logistica, and a "security professional", Peter Högberg , only indicted for the moment for manslaughter in the criminal section.
"Pilotage fault"
"There was a piloting fault," repeated Maître Cédric Fischer, for whom, "it was unimaginable that the pilots let themselves be dazzled by the sun". And to refute "any search for sensationalism" with this flight, ensuring that it was only a simple journey. "If it was a simple transport, why resort to" flying on patrol, "as difficult and insecure as possible? "Asked Maître Chalon, certain that this flight" was part of the production "and was intended to appear during the editing.
The defense asked the court to wait until the end of the criminal investigation before rendering a judgment, based on the stays of judgment pronounced by two courts of appeal for other families of victims. The Laon court will say on October 1 whether it follows this request and whether or not to condemn ALP. In the criminal section, the company and the production manager are assisted witnesses. A parallel criminal investigation is underway in Argentina.
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- Family
- Justice
- Production
- Helicopter
- TF1
- Accident
- Dropped