Rainbow Warrior agent dies in plane crash

A member of the French Secret Service team that carried out the Rainbow Warrior bombing in 1985 has been killed in a plane crash in the French Alps.

Xavier Maniguet, 62, was one of four men aboard the yacht Ouvea that smuggled explosives used in "Operation Satanic", which sank the Greenpeace flagship in a bid to stall protests against French nuclear tests in the South Pacific.

Maniguet, a flying instructor, died with a 76-year-old pupil on Monday.

They had just dropped off a skier on the 3400-metre-high Etendard glacier near the resort of Saint-Sorlin-d'Arves, and were taking off again when a gust of wind hit their craft. Maniguet had been at the controls of the single-engine Jodel aeroplane when the accident happened.

He was a reserve officer in the French Navy, an expert diver, parachutist, acrobatic pilot and sailor.

He also trained as a doctor specialising in diving injuries and aeronautical health.

The press described him as an "honourable correspondent" for the French foreign espionage service, the DGSE.

Maniguet chartered the Ouvea in New Caledonia and sailed it to New Zealand with three other agents.

The yacht carried two explosive charges hidden in an inflatable life-raft container, as well as a Zodiac inflatable boat, outboard motor and underwater rebreathing apparatus purchased in Europe.

The gear was handed over to two agents charged with co-ordinating the operation.

They then handed the gear to an assault team who attached the mines to the Greenpeace flagship, sinking it in Auckland Harbour on July 10, 1985, killing a Dutch-Portuguese photographer Fernando Pereira, who had gone below deck to retrieve his camera.

Maniguet's spy days did not end with the Rainbow Warrior saga.

In an obituary, newspaper Le Figaro said he took part in a secret mission to free French hostages in Somalia in September 2008.

"He earned the congratulations of the President," Nicolas Sarkozy, it said.

* Photo not French agent

A photo said to be of French agent Xavier Maniguet which was published on this story was of a New Zealander, Gregory Lockett, who has no connection with the Rainbow Warrior affair or French secret service.

The archive image was published in error in 1985, and due to a filing error at the time had not been expunged from Herald files. The Herald regrets the error and apologises to Mr Lockett for any distress and embarrassment.