She Spent Three Years Learning to Fly. Then She Broke Her Husband Out of Prison.

The Plan

In 1983, Michel Vaujour was serving a long sentence at La Santé Prison in Paris for armed robbery. His wife Nadine decided she was going to get him out. Not with lawyers. Not with appeals. With a helicopter.

She enrolled in flight school under a false name — "Lena Rigo" — and spent the next three years learning to fly helicopters. In the months before the escape, she became a regular customer at a helicopter rental company near Paris, renting an Aérospatiale Alouette II at $314 per hour, roughly twice a month. The company had no idea what she was practicing for.

The Nectarines

Michel needed to get from his cell to the prison roof. His solution was creative: he smuggled nectarines from the cafeteria, painted them green, and used them as fake grenades. On the morning of May 26, 1986, he and an accomplice named Pierre Hernandez threatened guards with the painted fruit and fought their way to the rooftop. Not a single shot was fired.

At the last moment, Hernandez lost his nerve and surrendered. Michel was on his own.

The Escape

At approximately 10:30 a.m., Nadine appeared overhead in the rented helicopter. She'd flown 19 miles from the Saint-Cyr Airdrome to the prison. She couldn't land on the roof — instead, she hovered while Michel grabbed a dangling rope and was hauled up into the aircraft.

The helicopter flew to a nearby athletic field where Nadine landed. The couple transferred to a waiting car and disappeared into Paris.

The Aftermath

They were free for approximately four months. Nadine was arrested on September 27, 1986. Michel was recaptured around the same time after a police encounter that left him seriously injured. He ultimately served the remainder of his 27-year sentence and was released in 2003. Nadine served a shorter sentence.

The couple separated before Michel was freed. The woman who spent three years learning to fly for him never saw the ending she'd planned.