Italian businessman Sandro Veronesi, the founder and chairman of Oniverse, the group behind Calzedonia, Tezenis and Intimissimi, was involved in an aviation accident in southwestern France after the small aircraft he was travelling in developed a malfunction during flight.

The 66-year-old entrepreneur was on board a single-engine plane with another Italian man, aged 56. At around 4 p.m. last Friday, April 24, the aircraft began experiencing technical problems while flying over farmland near Labastide-Villefranche, in southwestern France.

According to Italian media reports, the response by the authorities was swift, partly because of a chance occurrence. A French gendarmerie patrol conducting a training flight in the area noticed that the aircraft was losing altitude, with its nose pointing toward the ground. The officers immediately alerted emergency services and began searching for the crash site.

At the same time, the two men on board managed to remain calm and activated the aircraft’s emergency parachute system, a safety mechanism used in some light aircraft to slow the descent in the event of a serious malfunction. Its deployment proved crucial, reducing the aircraft’s rate of descent and preventing a far more serious outcome.

When firefighters arrived at the scene, they found the two men outside the aircraft, lying on the ground. Both were conscious, but were suffering from severe back pain caused by the abrupt deceleration of the plane.

They were taken to hospital for further medical checks.