It was aboard a collector's item that Rédoine Faïd and his accomplices took off, on July 1, 2018, during an escape that earned the multiple hold-up offender his appearance before the Paris criminal court. The helicopter was an Alouette II dating back to 1956, the kind of aircraft
that belongs in a museum. "It's as if you were robbing the Place Vendôme in a Traction Avant," the ranking police detective testified, referring to a Citroën model from the 1930s.

On Monday, September 18, a tall, thin and balding man took the stand. Stéphane Buy, 70, described himself as "an instructor a the Lognes airfield helicopter club." On July 1, 2018, it was he who piloted the aircraft in which Faïd took a seat to escape from prison. On Monday, he recounted the day he unwillingly took part in this incredible getaway. Buy had revised his earlier declaration to dispel the suspicion that weighed on him.

He described the arrival at the airfield, on July 1, 2018, of a father and son introducing themselves as the "Lepetit" family – the "father" was in fact Rachid Faïd, Rédoine's older brother – who had already come twice in previous weeks for brief initiation flights. They wanted to fly for a full hour and, this time, not aboard the four-seat Robinson R44 but rather on the Alouette II, which seats five.

An initial stop took place in a nearby field after a few minutes in flight, seemingly for a bathroom break for the two passengers. At this point in the narrative, Buy began to sob on the stand. "They came back with a gun each, pointed them at me and explained that they wanted to pick up a friend from prison, and that I'd better do my job well, because if not, they'd have someone in front of my house, and [...] they'd kill someone in my family." Buy also said he received blows his head.

At a second stop in a clearing a few kilometers away, the "Lepetit son" left the aircraft while "two people dressed like elite police, hooded and armed with machine guns" joined Rachid Faïd on board. According to the prosecution, one was a nephew of the Faïds, the defendant Ishaac Herizi, who disputes the account. The other person has yet to be identified. A mechanical incident delayed take-off. "They thought I was faking a breakdown," Buy said. The Alouette eventually raced towards Réau at 180 kilometers an hour at a very low altitude of between five and 10 meters, to escape radar and avoid collisions.

Buy then described the arrival above the penitentiary, hovering for seven minutes, one meter above the ground in the main courtyard, a gun held to his head by one of the criminals, while the other two went off to find Rédoine Faïd, opening the doors with an angle grinder.

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