Two Helicopters Clashed in the Air | 10 people killed including TV reality host

Pictured is moment two helicopters crash midair in Argentina, killing 10 people including three French sports stars taking part in a reality TV show. 

The video, shown on Argentinian TV this morning, reveals how one of the aircraft smashes into the other from below while flying over trees in a remote town. Seconds later, both craft plunge to the ground and explode in a ball of flames. 

 

Champion sailor Florence Arthaud, Olympic gold medal swimmer Camille Muffat and Olympic boxer Alexis Vastin were all killed, along with two Argentine pilots and five other French nationals.

Moments from death: 3 French sports stars - from left, champion sailor Florence Arthaud, Olympic gold medal swimmer Camille Muffat and Olympic boxer Alexis Vastine - are pictured shortly before boarding a helicopter which crashed in Argentina while they were filming a reality TV show

Lucky escape: Former Arsenal and France footballer Sylvain Wiltord (pictured, left, with fellow contestant, Olympic boxer Alexis Vastine) missed the doomed flights because he had been eliminated just the day before

Prosecutors in Paris today opened a manslaughter inquiry as Argentinian police removed the bodies from the wreckage of the helicopters. Air accident investigators have yet to reveal the cause of the crash, which happened around 5pm local time yesterday. 

The celebrities were taking part in a survival TV series called Dropped for French TV when the crash happened in a rugged mountain range in La Rioja province. 

A cattle farmer has told how he rushed to one of the helicopters to try to rescue survivors, but was beaten back by the heat and smoke. 

 

 

Alexis Vastine, a boxer who won bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics (left) and Florence Arthaud, who won the transatlantic sailing race Route du Rhum in 1990, were also reported to have been killed

Culled from UK Daily Mail