French Olympians among 10 dead in Argentina air crash

PARIS (AP) — Much of France was in mourning and looking for answers today over the crash of two helicopters in a remote part of Argentina that killed 10 people, three of them French sports stars taking part in a glitzy new reality TV show.

Olympic champion swimmer Camille Muffat, Olympic boxer and bronze-medalist Alexis Vastine, and pioneering sailor Florence Arthaud died in Monday's crash. They had been among the contestants in the reality TV show "Dropped."

The helicopters apparently collided in the air near Villa Castelli, about 730 miles (1,170 kilometers) northwest of Buenos Aires, La Rioja regional Secretary of Security Cesar Angulo told TN television. All 10 people on board — eight French nationals and two Argentine pilots — were killed.

Photographs and mobile-phone footage showed the burning wreckage of the helicopters in dry scrubland of a sparsely populated area along the Andes mountain range that separates Argentina and Chile.

The crash was believed to be one the deadliest incidents yet related to reality TV shows, a sub-genre of which involves taking celebrities and others to far-flung places to face challenges against the natural elements, both physical and mental.