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A French pilot has been sentenced after he decapitated a skydiver with his aeroplane’s wing moments after the latter jumped from the plane over Bouloc-en-Quercy, near Toulouse, in 2018.

According to reports, 40-year-old Nicolas Galy was one of ten parachutists on the trip and was ‘killed instantly’ after colliding with the wing.

In a court hearing earlier this year, the unnamed pilot described the incident as “the tragedy of my life,” but said he had done nothing wrong.

Galy, an aeronautical engineer, was struck at an altitude of 4,000 metres. The pilot began the plane’s descent towards the airfield immediately after he jumped out.

According to the pilot, there was no discussion about the plane’s direction after Galy exited it. Despite this, the pilot stated that Galy ‘did not follow the intended course and should never have been on that course’.

“He was parallel to the plane,” he added. It wasn’t my fault, but I believe my flight path made sense. This has been the worst tragedy of my life, yet I am not to blame.”

He also said he hadn’t spotted the wingsuiters and assumed he was safe from them, saying “Compared with parachutists who are in free fall, it’s more complicated with the wingsuiters who go more in a straight line. They don’t descend much and can be in conflict with the aircraft.”