A French pilot has been sentenced after he decapitated an wingsuit skydiver with his aeroplane’s wing moments after the latter jumped from the plane over Bouloc-en-Quercy, near Toulouse, in 2018.
According to reports, 40-year-old Nicolas Galy was one of ten parachutists on the trip and was ‘killed instantly’ after colliding with the wing.
On July 27, 2018, Galy was the first of two wingsuiters to jump from a single-engine aircraft over Bouloc-en-Quercy, north of Toulouse, in southern France. Both jumpers left the plane at around 14,400 feet.
In a court hearing earlier this year, the unnamed pilot described the incident as “the tragedy of my life,” but said he had done nothing wrong.
Galy, an aeronautical engineer, was struck at an altitude of 4,000 metres. The pilot began the plane’s descent towards the airfield immediately after he jumped out.
According to the pilot, there was no discussion about the plane’s direction after Galy exited it. Despite this, the pilot stated that Galy ‘did not follow the intended course and should never have been on that course’.
“He was parallel to the plane,” he added. It wasn’t my fault, but I believe my flight path made sense. This has been the worst tragedy of my life, yet I am not to blame.”
He also said he hadn’t spotted the wingsuiters and assumed he was safe from them, saying “Compared with parachutists who are in free fall, it’s more complicated with the wingsuiters who go more in a straight line. They don’t descend much and can be in conflict with the aircraft.”
At previous court hearings, the pilot said he hadn't briefed the eight parachutists and two wingsuiters who were aboard what was his fourth jump flight that day. He also said he'd lost visual contact with the wingsuiters after they jumped and assumed he was clear of them.
"Compared with parachutists who are in free fall, it's more complicated with the wingsuiters who go more in a straight line," Pilot said. "They don't descend much and can be in conflict with the aircraft."
He went on to claim that Galy "did not follow the expected course and should never have been on that course." "It wasn't my responsibility," the pilot said.
Prosecutors however said Galy was the one who had been in the right.
“The victim was the only one who obeyed the rules without negligence.”
The pilot was charged with involuntary manslaughter and was found guilty at Montauban criminal court on 21 November. He was given a 12-month suspended sentence, as well as being banned from flying.
In a hearing earlier this year, a lawyer speaking on behalf of the victim’s loved ones said there had been “a lot of recklessness or negligence”.
The pilot’s employer, The Midi-Pyrénées Skydiving School Association, was given a €20,000 (R410 000) fine – half of which was suspended.
Since the tragedy, security measures have been strengthened and are more draconian and briefings have become obligatory, underlined the president of the school, Isabelle Deschamps.
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