Overview
- A touring homage, Balavoine: ma bataille, launches on January 14 from Alençon with scheduled stops including Boulazac on January 31, Floirac on February 3, and Agen on February 8, alongside additional regional commemorations.
- Claire Balavoine says her brother feared flying, did not want to board the helicopter, and believes a sandstorm and a chain of poor decisions led to the accident, a personal account reported during the anniversary coverage.
- TF1’s archival bulletin recalls that the 1986 helicopter crash in Mali killed rally organizer Thierry Sabine, Daniel Balavoine, a Journal du Dimanche reporter, the pilot, and a radio technician.
- According to TF1, he boarded at Gao for a humanitarian visit and, at the organizer’s request, took journalist Jean‑Luc Roy’s seat to head toward the Gourma‑Rharous bivouac before the aircraft went down.
- Balavoine’s enduring ties to the Sud‑Ouest include years spent in Pau and Biarritz, burial at Biarritz’s Ranquine cemetery, and local venues bearing his name, even as younger residents increasingly struggle to identify him.