An experienced wingsuit skydiver smashed into a plane’s wing and was decapitated just 20 seconds into his jump in the South of France, it was revealed during the pilot’s manslaughter trial.
Nicolas Galy, 40, was the first of two skydivers who were released from the single-engine Pilatus plane at 14,000 feet over the town of Bouloc-en-Quercy in July 2018, reported the Times.
Moments later, the aircraft’s pilot, identified only as 64-year-old Alain C, rapidly descended and caught up with the skydivers as they were gliding in their wingsuits.
The plane’s left wing and a strut clipped Galy, beheading him, the court in the city of Montauban heard this week.
The victim’s emergency parachute then opened, and his lifeless body landed in a field.
In the wake of Galy’s death, the pilot was charged with manslaughter, with prosecutors arguing that his errors caused the horrific accident.
Alain defended himself in court, insisting that he had done nothing wrong and that Galy “did not follow the expected course and should never have been on that course.”
According to the pilot, Galy, an engineer and skydiver with 226 jumps under his belt, was parallel to the plane, and Alain thought he was “further south.”
“I think my flight path made sense,” the pilot testified. “This has been the tragedy of my life but I am not at fault.”
Alain, who worked for a local skydiving school, admitted on the stand that he had not briefed the skydivers and wingsuiters about the jump.
He then lost track of the wingsuit jumpers and assumed he was clear of them — even though he acknowledged that “they don’t descend much and can be in conflict with the aircraft.”
It also emerged during the trial that the 64-year-old aviator was flying with an invalid license after he violated some restrictions stemming from an unspecified medical condition.
Prosecutor Jeanne Regagngon argued that Galy “was the only one who obeyed the rules without negligence” on the day of the ill-fated jump.
She asked for a 12-month suspended sentence for the pilot and a fine of more than $10,000 for his employer.
The verdict in the manslaughter trial is due in November.