Helicopter crash kills French sporting stars

Three French sport stars were among ten people killed in a helicopter crash in Argentina on Monday during filming for a reality TV show.

Yachtswoman Florence Arthaud, Olympic swimming gold medallist Camille Muffat and Olympic boxer Alexis Vastine were killed when two helicopters collided in La Rioja province in the north-west of Argentina. Five members of the French film crew also died, along with the two Argentinian pilots.

"The sudden death of our fellow French nationals is a cause of immense sadness," said a statement from President Francois Hollande, who was said to be "stupefied" by news of the crash.

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The sports stars were in Argentina to film a reality TV show for TF1, France's premier terrestrial channel. Called 'Dropped', the show inserts celebrities in remote locations by helicopter and then films their attempts to live off the land.

Among the other sporting stars who had been flown to Argentina were double Olympic swimming champion Alain Bernard and former France and Arsenal footballer Sylvain Wiltord. He later tweeted: "I'm sad for my friends, I'm trembling, I'm horrified, I have no words, I don't want to say anything."

The French media reported on Tuesday morning that the cause of the crash – which happened in good weather near Villa Castelli, about 750 miles north-west of Buenos Aires – has yet to be determined.

According to France Info radio station, the two helicopters took off from a football field and 100 metres from the ground the blades of one machine touched the other. One helicopter exploded and the other crashed to the ground. There were no survivors.

"An explosion occurred and it's believed that they must have collided,'' said La Rioja Secretary of Security Cesar Angulo. "Aeronautical experts will have to determine that."

Yachtswoman Florence Arthaud, 57, was one of France's best-known sailors who in 1990 won the Route du Rhum, the prestigious solo Atlantic race.

Vastine won an Olympic boxing bronze in the light welterweight category at the 2008 Beijing Games and narrowly missed out on a medal in London. Muffat, who announced her retirement from swimming last December, won three medals at the 2012 Olympics, including gold in the 400m freestyle.

The tragedy is not the first to hit a TF1 reality show. Two years ago a 25-year-old man died of a heart attack during the filming for a programme called Koh-Lanta, a tropical survival challenge filmed in the Gulf of Thailand. The show's doctor, Thierry Costa, subsequently killed himself, claiming in his suicide note that his reputation had been destroyed by the press.

In response to the latest disaster, TF1 released a statement in which the company said: "We learn with great sadness about the accident during the filming of the Dropped show. All TF1 teams come together in this terrible time with the pain of the families and relatives of the victims."