A Piper plane landed urgently Monday afternoon on a beach in Biscarrosse (Landes).
His pilot is unharmed while the student he was with jumped off the aircraft before landing and was wanted, we learned from firefighters.
The plane landed around 5:30 p.m. on a beach on a military estate, according to firefighters.
Air and sea resources, two helicopters and two ships, were then hired to try to find the student pilot, the same source said.
A suicide attempt?
According to France Bleu Gascogne, a disagreement over the flight path is at the origin of the accident.
The suicide trail was mentioned by the gendarmerie forces.
The co-pilot would have tried to take control of the aircraft, in order to dive towards the ocean to end his life.
His instructor would then have taken control, while the co-pilot would have thrown himself from the plane, at an altitude of several tens of meters, above the ocean.
At the beginning of the evening, the search for the missing co-pilot was unsuccessful, according to the firefighters.
The identities of the pilot and the passenger were not specified.