http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/10/w...rs-crash-in-argentina-10-are-killed.html?_r=0
BUENOS AIRES — Ten people were killed, including at least three prominent French athletes, when two helicopters collided in midair on Monday night, an Argentine police official said.
Eight of the dead were French citizens, the official said. They were headed toward a remote gorge in the arid northwestern province of La Rioja to film a French reality television show called “Dropped,” according to local news media reports.
The two other victims, Argentines, were the pilots of the helicopters, identified as Juan Carlos Castillo and Roberto Abate, The Associated Press reported.
In Paris, the office of President François Hollande confirmed that the Olympic swimmer Camille Muffat, the Olympic boxer Alexis Vastine and the sailor Florence Arthaud were among the dead, according to Reuters. The statement from the Élysée Palace added that the accident occurred during filming of the television program, which appears on the TF1 channel.
Witnesses told a radio station that the two helicopters had brushed in the air and then immediately exploded.
Conditions for flying were optimum, Argentina’s state news agency reported. Investigators were at the wreckage late Monday, but the cause of the crash had yet to be determined.
The mayor of the closest town to the crash site, Villa Castelli, said the helicopters were “totally burned.”
Ms. Muffat won gold, silver and bronze Olympic medals; Mr. Vastine had won a bronze medal. Both were in their 20s. Ms. Arthaud was in her 50s.
About 80 people were in La Rioja, near the Chilean border, working on the program, provincial officials said. They had previously been shooting in southern Argentina, according to Agence France-Presse.
<figure id="media-100000003562484" class="media photo embedded has-adjacency layout-large-horizontal media-100000003562484" data-media-action="modal" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/10/world/ARGENTINA1/ARGENTINA1-articleLarge.jpg" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" aria-label="media" role="group" style="margin: 45px 0px 45px 135px; position: relative; width: 540px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: nyt-cheltenham, georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">Photo
<figcaption class="caption" itemprop="caption description" style="font-size: 0.8125rem; line-height: 1.0625rem; font-family: nyt-cheltenham-sh, georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); width: auto; right: 0px; bottom: 23px;">The site of the crash near the town of Villa Castelli, Argentina. CreditJose Alamo/Associated Press</figcaption></figure>
BUENOS AIRES — Ten people were killed, including at least three prominent French athletes, when two helicopters collided in midair on Monday night, an Argentine police official said.
Eight of the dead were French citizens, the official said. They were headed toward a remote gorge in the arid northwestern province of La Rioja to film a French reality television show called “Dropped,” according to local news media reports.
The two other victims, Argentines, were the pilots of the helicopters, identified as Juan Carlos Castillo and Roberto Abate, The Associated Press reported.
In Paris, the office of President François Hollande confirmed that the Olympic swimmer Camille Muffat, the Olympic boxer Alexis Vastine and the sailor Florence Arthaud were among the dead, according to Reuters. The statement from the Élysée Palace added that the accident occurred during filming of the television program, which appears on the TF1 channel.
Witnesses told a radio station that the two helicopters had brushed in the air and then immediately exploded.
Conditions for flying were optimum, Argentina’s state news agency reported. Investigators were at the wreckage late Monday, but the cause of the crash had yet to be determined.
The mayor of the closest town to the crash site, Villa Castelli, said the helicopters were “totally burned.”
Ms. Muffat won gold, silver and bronze Olympic medals; Mr. Vastine had won a bronze medal. Both were in their 20s. Ms. Arthaud was in her 50s.
About 80 people were in La Rioja, near the Chilean border, working on the program, provincial officials said. They had previously been shooting in southern Argentina, according to Agence France-Presse.
<figure id="media-100000003562484" class="media photo embedded has-adjacency layout-large-horizontal media-100000003562484" data-media-action="modal" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/10/world/ARGENTINA1/ARGENTINA1-articleLarge.jpg" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" aria-label="media" role="group" style="margin: 45px 0px 45px 135px; position: relative; width: 540px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: nyt-cheltenham, georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">Photo
<figcaption class="caption" itemprop="caption description" style="font-size: 0.8125rem; line-height: 1.0625rem; font-family: nyt-cheltenham-sh, georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); width: auto; right: 0px; bottom: 23px;">The site of the crash near the town of Villa Castelli, Argentina. CreditJose Alamo/Associated Press</figcaption></figure>
