25.2.09

WOMAN PILOT SAVES GANGSTER FROM PRISON



By Michael Field in Paris
A helicopter piloted by a woman carried to freedom a gangster who was serving 18 years for robbery and murder from the Sante Prison in the centre of Paris yesterday. A second prisoner was part of the escape plan, but he changed his mind at the last minute. Michel Vaujour, 34, who his lawyer describes as a dangerous criminal of above average intelligence, was waiting on the roof when a white helicopter flew in and took him away. It was the fourth and most exciting escape in Vaujour's career. The helicopter took off from the suburb of St. Cyr and flew in without paying attention to radio warnings from the police that it was breaking the ban on low flying over Paris. Two people were on board: a woman with dark brown hair dressed in black and a man with a sub-machine gun. An hour after the breathtaking escape, the prison governor told reporters, "The helicopter dropped a rope ladder to help Vaujour climb aboard while the man with the sub-machine gun told prison guards not to move. The whole operation took only about two minutes. Fortunately, no shots were fired and nobody was injured." The helicopter landed soon after at a nearby football field. Some children playing there saw two men and a woman run off towards a ring road. Claude Roumet, head of Air Continent which owned the helicopter, said, "A pretty woman about 28 years old, who gave her name as Lena Rigon, rented the helicopter. She is a regular customer and has been flying my aircraft for five or six months. I was really surprised when I heard that she did this incredible thing." Five years ago, another helicopter escape took place in Paris. Two prisoners escaped from the Fleury-Merogis prison south of Paris, but they could not go very far because the, police quickly recaptured them.

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