Claude Guillemot was believed to be among the two people killed when a Cessna 421 crashed into a field while approaching La Baule aerodrome on June 19. The Loire-Atlantique fire department said the 69-year-old Ubisoft co-founder was among the victims, but identification had not yet been possible when the article was published.
The aircraft had departed from Rennes, France, before going down near La Baule. France Info reported that Guillemot owned the plane and was a member of the La Baule flying club, and that he was due to attend a gathering of more than 100 aircraft in the region that weekend.
La Baule aerodrome crash
Two passengers died in the crash. The other victim was believed to be a flight instructor from Rennes. The crash leaves one immediate factual gap: formal identification had not been completed at the time of publication, even though the family were notified on the evening after the incident.
The plane’s final approach matters because it places the crash at the end of a short, specific sequence rather than in open flight. A twin-engine Cessna 421 had left Rennes and then struck a field while trying to reach La Baule aerodrome, leaving investigators and relatives with the same narrow question of identity before any wider accounting can begin.
Claude Guillemot and Ubisoft
Guillemot was not just a passenger name in a crash report. He founded Ubisoft with his four brothers, after the family moved from agricultural supply in Brittany into business and technology, and he later served as CEO of Guillemot Corporation.
By the time of his death, he was executive vice president of operations and a member of Ubisoft’s board of directors. Yves Guillemot was Ubisoft’s public face as CEO, while Claude’s career linked the family name to Guillemot Informatique, Ubi Soft, and later Guillemot Corporation and the hardware brands Thrustmaster and Hercules.
France Info report
The reported ownership of the aircraft adds a second layer to the crash: this was not only a fatal approach into a field near La Baule, but also an event tied to a private owner and a flying-club member who had planned to be in the region for a weekend gathering of more than 100 aircraft. The family’s notification on the evening after the crash is the latest fixed point in the sequence, and the next step is formal identification of the two dead before the story moves from belief to naming.
