French supermarket tycoon Paul-Louis Halley dies in British plane crash

London AP via Yahoo ^ | 12/09/03 | MICHAEL MCDONOUGH (London AP)

[theFIRMbss]

French supermarket tycoon Paul-Louis Halley dies in British plane crash
Sun Dec 7, 5:22 PM ET

MICHAEL MCDONOUGH

LONDON (AP) - Billionaire French businessman Paul-Louis Halley, whose family is the largest shareholder in giant French retail chain Carrefour SA, was named by police Sunday as one of three people killed in a plane crash in central England.

Halley, 69, died Saturday along with his wife, Annik Jacqueline Halley, 63, and their Belgian pilot when their single-engine propeller plane crashed into a field as it attempted to land at Kidlington Airport near Oxford, Thames Valley Police said.

Halley and his family ranked 104th in a list of the world's richest people compiled by Forbes magazine, with a worth of $3.2 billion US. He co-founded supermarket group Promodes SA, which in 1999 merged with Paris-based Carrefour to form the second-largest retailer in the world behind Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of the United States.

The office of French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin issued a statement late Saturday expressing condolences for Halley's death, before British police officially confirmed he was killed in the crash.

"Vigilant attention to the expectations of consumers was a constant characteristic of his action and of his success," Raffarin said in the statement.

Born Sept. 11, 1934, in Cherbourg, Halley started out modestly in France's northern Normandy region, where his father owned a grocery store and he worked as the sales manager.

In 1961, the Halley family brought together two wholesale businesses to make up what would later become Promodes, which opened its first supermarket a year later near Paris. The company built a series of chains and convenience stores, including Champion, Shopi and 8 a Huit, corner groceries that are still ubiquitous in France.

Halley took over the presidency of Promodes from his father, Paul-Auguste Halley, in 1972 and developed the business as it expanded across Europe.

In 1999, Halley agreed to merge Promodes with rival Carrefour, creating Europe's biggest retailer. Following the merger, he held a top spot on Carrefour's board and was chairman of the company's strategic committee.

The Halley family holds an 11.5 per cent stake in Carrefour, making it the largest shareholder in the retail chain, the company said on its official website.

Thames Valley Police said that Halley, his wife and pilot Jan Frans Walter Brams, 46, were the only people on board the aircraft travelling from Brussels.

Witnesses said the plane appeared to be a few seconds from landing when it dipped sharply and nose-dived into the field just after 11:20 a.m. Saturday.

Halley and his wife were French nationals but lived in Tervuren, Belgium, police said in a statement.

All three victims were declared dead at the scene of the crash and a post-mortem was planned for Monday, the statement said, adding that investigators from the Civil Aviation Authority and a Royal Air Force rescue team were examining the wreckage.

[theFIRMbss]

>Paul-Louis Halley became the fourth President of EuroCommerce on 20 June 2000.

Iraqi bad guys
use French missles. French "press" guys
travel with bad guys.

Now a French big-wig
dies in a single-engine
plane crash. Death noted.

[Montfort]

"single-engine propeller plane"

I just cannot understand the fascination of the rich and powerful with small planes. I am not saying they should always fly first class in the same planes as the rest of us cattle, but can't they afford some bigger planes than single-engine prop planes. I think the celebs who travel by luxury bus (when they can) have lots of sense.

You can get work done in a luxury bus. The benefits of puddle jumping in tiny planes just don't seem to be worth it unless you are in Alaska or some other place where such a vehicle is essential.

This was England. There are lots of ways to get to anywhere in England from elsewhere in England or even the Continent.

[MCRD]

Clean up in aisle 3.

[aShepard]

Note to self:

When I amass a personal fortune of over $3 billion, spring for the twin engine plane.

[expatpat]

Sounds like the pilot gave up too much airspeed and stalled it. What kind of plane was it (some are much kinder in a stall than others), what was the weather like?

[Diverdogz]

Twin engine planes are not necessarily safer than singles.... especially on take-offs.

[theFIRMbss]

>What kind of plane was it (some are much kinder in a stall than others), what was the weather like?

"The aircraft appeared to be making a fairly normal approach at about two to three hundred yards before the end of the runway," said pilot Mark Coombs, who witnessed the crash. "It made a level left turn and rolled to the left and then went down, almost spiralling in perpendicularly. "It looked like it was coming in to land, as if it was almost five seconds away from landing". A BBC reporter at the scene said the aircraft had been "crushed like cardboard".

...Thames Valley Police, the local force, said Sunday that an investigation had begun into why the six-seater Socata, made by European aviation giant EADS, had crashed....

[theFIRMbss]

>When I amass a personal fortune of over $3 billion, spring for the twin engine plane.

The top-of-the-line
Socata apparently
is like a "Rolls Royce"

of the airplane world.
The company's been around
more than ninety years.

They're owned by Europe's
leading aerospace giant.
And the plane sounds good:

"Seriously Fast - Speed is exhilarating. Speed is freedom. Speed is the reason we learn to fly. Speed is not everything of course. Here is an airplane that climbs to a flight level of 31,000 feet in just 21 minutes. Handles with ease. Slips in and out of 2,100-foot strips, and provides more payload-range capability than some light jets. Take a TBM 700 for a quick ride. But be warned. You may never want to fly anything else."

[theFIRMbss]

>Iraqi bad guys/use French missles. French "press" guys/travel with bad guys.

Just for completeness,
these are the French stories I
hinted at above:

French Missiles Used in Hotel Attack (And the U.S go to the United Nations)

"BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 26 — An American colonel was killed and at least 16 people were wounded early Sunday when a barrage of air-to-ground missiles from a homemade launchpad slammed into a highly protected hotel where Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz was staying. ... The French rockets, officers said, were quite new, and were probably purchased after the arms embargo was in place. "They were in pristine condition," said one military officer who inspected the rocket tubes and assembly."

TWO French magazines 'just happen' to be with Iraqi insurgents who tried to shoot down DHL jet

FRENCH weekly magazine, Paris Match, is to publish exclusive pictures of what it says are Iraqi rebels launching a missile attack on a German DHL cargo plane over Baghdad that led to a shutdown of commercial air traffic to the Iraqi capital.

The images were taken by one of the magazine's photographers, Jerome Sessini, who was with the attackers - described in the accompanying article as "Iraqi guerrillas" - at the time of Saturday's missile strike, editor-in-chief Alain Genestar told AFP today.

He said Sessini and a special correspondent sent to Iraq, Claudine Verniez-Palliez, had been with the group for several days beforehand and were unaware they were about to witness the attack.

[Space Wrangler]

My thoughts exactly. Why is a guy worth a billion not flying in at least a twin engine? Better yet, why not a nice used G-IV?

[jempet]

No treachory coming out of france surprises me anymore. I've become so used to it lately. Chirac has held power for way too long in one form or another and runs the place like an Emperor. Not all french are bad, but when their government controlled media blames us for all their problems, (kind of like the arab media) it's no wonder the french decide to team up with the bad guys. Iraq, Iran, N. Korea..where does it end? Hopefully the citizens of france wake up before they are on the wrong side of our military.

[expatpat]

Thanks for the info. Sounds like stall-spin event from the eyewitness account. However, the wreckage doesn't quite square with a near-vertical impact.