Body of James Grégoire recovered

The body of Château de la Rivière’s former owner, James Grégoire, has been found in the Dordogne over a month after the deadly crash in Bordeaux.

Grégoire’s body was recovered last week and his identity confirmed a little later. The body of Lam Kok, the Chinese billionaire who bought the property before their tragic deaths in December, is yet to be found.

The bodies of Kok’s son and the interpreter, Peng Wang, have already been recovered.

The body was found washed up on the banks of the river by a walker, reported Paris Match.

He was tentatively identified by his clothes at the scene while a DNA test confirmed it over the week end.

Grégoire was piloting the helicopter when it crashed shortly after take off on 20 December.

Kok’s wife, who has a fear of flying, did not join her husband and son on the aerial tour and so survived.

An autopsy of Grégoire’s body provided no further answers as to why the helicopter crashed.

Suggestions that Grégoire may have caused the crash due to a moment’s inattention have been rejected by friends and associates as “unthinkable”, describing him as a pilot “of great experience”.