Having been with the company since its founding on March 28 1986, Claude Guillemot, one of the co-founders along with his brothers, have died in a plane crash in Western France at the age of 69.
Neither Ubisoft, nor any of Claude's brothers, have written a public statement regarding the death of Claude. The most thorough source of information we've been able to find is this article from Ouest-France, which is the most popular French language newspaper in the world.
According to the article, Guillemot himself was piloting the aircraft while a flight instructor was also on board. He was piloting a Cessna 421, which is reportedly quite difficult to handle.
NOTE: The original article is written in French. What you're reading below is the article translated to English with Google Translate.
Quote From Matthieu Marin A twin-engine plane crashed on Friday, June 19, shortly before 6 p.m. near La Baule airfield (Loire-Atlantique). The two people on board died. According to information from Ouest-France, the owner was Claude Guillemot, one of the founding brothers of the video game company Ubisoft.
The wreckage of the twin-engine plane, this Saturday morning, June 20. | WEST-FRANCEFormal identification has not yet been possible. However, his family was notified as early as yesterday evening, Friday, June 19—barely hours after the plane crashed while approaching the La Baule airfield in Loire-Atlantique. According to Ouest-France, the owner of the aircraft—a twin-engine Cessna 421 business-class plane—was Claude Guillemot. A member of the La Baule flying club who owns a holiday home in the area, he is one of the founding members of Ubisoft, alongside his four brothers. The company is a global leader in the video game industry.
An instructor on board
The aircraft, based in Rennes, took off around 5:20 p.m. on Friday bound for La Baule, the site of a weekend gathering of over a hundred planes in which Claude Guillemot was scheduled to participate. According to a source close to the investigation, the businessman was piloting the aircraft, accompanied on the flight by an instructor from Rennes.
The plane—a twin-engine model that ceased production in the late 1980s—is reportedly quite difficult to handle, according to several pilots who spoke on Friday, June 19. It crashed near the runway but off-axis from the landing path, in the vicinity of several houses.
Investigators from the Air Transport Gendarmerie returned to the scene on Saturday morning. The wreckage is still in the field where the tragedy occurred, near the small hamlet of La Bosse, in La Baule. | OUEST FRANCEClaude Guillemot, an aviation enthusiast, was apparently particularly attached to this relatively old model. On Friday evening, the Saint-Nazaire public prosecutor, Florence Sroda, was at the scene, along with investigators from the Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis (BEA) and the Air Transport Gendarmerie. The latter returned to the site on Saturday morning. The wreckage remains in the field where the tragedy occurred, near the small hamlet of La Bosse in La Baule.
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