French experts to probe chopper tragedy

French officials are en route to the site of an Argentine helicopter crash which claimed the lives of three of France's best known sports personalities.

The remains of one of two helicopters that crashed near Villa Castelli

France is in mourning after three sports stars were killed in a helicopter crash in Argentina. (AAP)

French experts will join Argentine investigators in probing a helicopter collision which killed 10 people, including three of France's best-known sports personalities.

Two French officials were on their way to the crash site on Wednesday, where teams were already combing wreckage, looking for clues to what caused the crash shortly after take-off in the rugged mountains of La Rioja province.

Monday's collision, which happened during the filming of a reality television show, killed champion Olympic swimmer Camille Muffat, yachtswoman Florence Arthaud and Olympic boxer Alexis Vastine, as well as five French TV crew members and two Argentine pilots.

Emergency workers removed the victims' remains from the wreckage near the small northwestern town of Villa Castelli on Tuesday and took them to the morgue in the provincial capital, about 300 kilometres away.

The victims' bodies were burnt beyond recognition, provincial security secretary Luis Cesar Angulo said.

There were no survivors in the crash, which authorities said happened in good weather.

French prosecutors have opened a manslaughter investigation - standard procedure when a French citizen dies abroad.

The reality program, Dropped, which was to air on French channel TF1 later this year, involved eight sports stars being dropped in the wild for a survival contest.

Video taken from the ground showed the two helicopters flying extremely close, then their rotors clipping and both aircraft plummeting to the ground.

Franck Firmin-Guion, head of Adventure Line Productions making the show, said: "Suddenly, (one of the helicopters) swerved off course and hit the other one."

French President Francois Hollande led the tributes, expressing his "immense sadness".

Muffat, 25, won three medals at the 2012 London Olympics, including gold in the 400-metre freestyle, sealing her status as one of the best swimmers in French history.

She shocked the sporting world last year by retiring, saying she was exhausted by the long hours of training and wanted to pursue new challenges.

Arthaud, 57, was considered one of the best sailors in the world, and conquered what had then been a male-dominated sport. Her titles included the prestigious Route du Rhum in 1990.

Vastine, 28, won bronze at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 as a light welterweight.

His death came just two months after his 21-year-old sister was killed in a car crash.

Muffat's former coach Fabrice Pellerin told French radio station RTL: "What's hard is to reconcile the image I have of Camille - who was unsinkable - with what happened."

The swimmer's partner, William Forgues, said she had been excited about appearing in the show.

"She was loving it," he told news agency AFP.

"She was hoping not to go out first to be able to continue, to go on to another magical destination."

In the southern French city of Nice, where Muffat lived, mourners lit candles beneath a large poster of a smiling Muffat wearing her three medals.

At dusk, hundreds of people gathered in a public park to pay tribute to the swimmer.

A tearful tribute was also held for Vastine in his hometown in Normandy.

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Source: AAP


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