French inmate escapes prison for the 2nd time, this time on a helicopter

It sounds like the plot of a movie, but this very dramatic escape actually took place Sunday in a prison outside of Paris.

A helicopter landed in the courtyard of the Reau Prison, and within minutes took off with an extra passenger: Redoine Faid, 46, an inmate serving 25 years for planning a 2010 botched armed robbery that ended with a policewoman being killed.

French media reports that the helicopter landed in the only area that didn't have anti-helicopter netting. Two heavily-armed men dressed in black with their faces covered jumped out of the helicopter and entered the visiting room, where Faid was meeting with his brother. The helicopter pilot had been abducted from a nearby flying club, French media said, and was being held at gunpoint by a third person during the escape. The pilot was later released without any injuries, and the helicopter was found burned in the northern suburbs of Paris.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Faid and his accomplices remain on the lam. This is his second time breaking out of prison — in 2013, he used explosives hidden inside tissue packets to escape from a different facility, and was apprehended inside a hotel room a few weeks later. In 2009, Faid was released from prison after serving 10 years for various robberies, and wrote a book about his life of crime.