French tycoon confirmed dead in air crash in England

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, December 08, 2003

French tycoon confirmed dead in air crash in England

British police confirmed Sunday that French tycoon Paul-Louis Halley of the Carrefour supermarket giant was killed in an air crash in Oxfordshire, southeast of England, one day earlier.

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British police confirmed Sunday that French tycoon Paul-Louis Halley of the Carrefour supermarket giant was killed in an air crash in Oxfordshire, southeast of England, one day earlier.

A probe into the crash is going on.

Halley, 69, and his 63-year-old wife Annick, together with a male Belgian pilot, died when their light plane flipped over and crashed on landing near the university city of Oxford on Saturday, Thames Valley Police said in a statement.

The plane, which had flown from Brussels, appeared to spiral out of control before crashing, police and eyewitnesses said.

"Investigators from the civil aviation authority are currently at the scene. They are being assisted by an RAF rescue team. Police are expected to maintain a scene watch overnight and the plane may be moved tomorrow," a police spokeswoman said.

French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin paid tribute Saturday to Halley, saying in a statement that the dead was "a brilliant figure in the world of French business."

Halley co-founded the fashion company Promodes with his father and brother in 1961. The company merged with Carrefour in 1999 to form the world's second largest supermarket group, of which he was a principal shareholder.

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