It’s a case that marked the world of television: in March 2015, on the set of the game droppedsupposed to be broadcast by TF1 in the process, two helicopters had collided, causing the death of ten people including three athletes (Camille Muffat, Alexis Vastine and Florence Arthaud), as well as several employees of ALP, the organizing production company Game.
And it is she who has just been sentenced on appeal in Amiens for “inexcusable mistake“and will have to compensate the family of a sound engineer victim of the fatal helicopter accident. A decision which confirms the judgment of January 7, 2021, which considered that the fatal accident during which Edouard Gilles, recruited as chief engineer of the his, had been killed was attributable to “inexcusable faulte” of the company Adventure Line Productions” (ALP).
She had appealed but she took it badly: while she had been ordered to pay 80,000 euros to the descendants of the victim at first instance, she will now be obliged to pay them 90,000. A decision that delights Gisèle Gilles, the sound engineer’s widow. “It’s a relief, I’ve been on this trial for years and they don’t want to admit that they are guilty” she reacted to AFP.
Other compensation expected
But this condemnation is only the first of a long list expected in the coming months. Indeed, several compensation procedures are underway in France. In 2021, the ALP company was in particular indicted for “involuntary homicides”, as had been the Swede Peter Högberg, “in charge of security during filming” in 2019, then in 2020, Nicolas Roussel, production director of the show.
The French judges suspect that the persons indicted have, for example, underestimated the budget allocated to air resources and favored financial criteria in the choice of pilots and helicopters, “to the detriment of the safety of persons”. Answer in a few months, after a long investigation of justice.
As a reminder, this game supposed to be broadcast in the summer of 2015 on TF1 was intended to bring several athletes to the most remote places on the planet, then to give them 72 hours to find civilization and the city.
In addition to navigator Florence Arthaud, boxer Alexis Vastine and swimmer Camille Muffat, who therefore died in the violent accident, Alain Bernard, Jeannie Longo or even Philippe Candeloro and Sylvain Wiltord were part of the game and had returned alive but traumatized.