A French pilot has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter on Tuesday after decapitating a skydiver with the wing of his plane in 2018.
The unnamed pilot is also banned from flying for one year, according to Le Parisien. He got a 12-month prison sentence, which has since been suspended.
The pilot, 64, hit Nicolas Galy, 40, with the plane’s left wing just seconds after Galey jumped out of the aircraft at an altitude of about 13,123 feet.
Galy was wearing a wingsuit, which allows someone to control their free fall using inflatable winged sleeving, like a flying squirrel. Wingsuit flying is often regarded as one of the most dangerous sports.
Galy’s emergency parachute deployed and his body landed in a field, according to the Daily Beast.
The pilot, who was operating the plane Galy jumped out of, started to descend toward the aerodrome tarmac after Galy jumped. He said that when he lost visual contact with the wingsuiter, he thought the plane was clear of them.
Prosecutors said there was a lack of communication between Galy and the pilot on the trajectory the plane would take.
In court hearings, the pilot said he is “not at fault” and Galy “did not follow the expected course and should never have been on that course.”
An investigation of the incident by the Civil Aviation Accident Investigation Office found the pilot, an employee of Midi-Pyrénées Parachuting School in southern France, was not in a good state of health to have been flying. His license was invalid due to a medical condition.
The court found the pilot guilty of operating an aircraft without a valid aeronautical license.
The school was fined 20,000 euros (about $21,773) for not verifying the license of its pilots, but half of that has been suspended. The school told Le Parisien there are now more security measures in place.