Amateur video uploaded to the internet appears to show the moment two helicopters collided in the Andes in Argentina, as the filming of a French TV reality show ended in tragedy.
The film appears to back reports that the collision near Villa Castelli in La Rioja province happened in clear weather at an altitude of about 100 metres.
Experts from the French Land Transport Accident Investigation Bureau (Bureau d’Enquêtes sur les Accidents de Transport Terrestre, or BEA-TT) are on their way to Argentina to investigate the crash.
Questions are being asked about what the stars were doing on “Dropped”, the reality show that leaves contestants to cope in remote locations.
“What were they going to do in that hell?” asked a headline in the current affairs magazine L’Obs (formerly Le Nouvel Observateur).
Tributes have been paid to the three sports stars who were among eight French nationals and two Argentine pilots who died.
Yachtswoman Florence Arthaud was known as the “Fiancee of
