A French pilot is facing manslaughter charges after his plane decapitated a man flying a wingsuit in France.

The horrific incident occurred in July 2018 when Alain C. was flying his single-engine Pilatus airplane for a pair of wingsuit divers over Bouloc-en-Quercy near Toulouse, where he worked for a local parachuting school.

Nicolas Galy, 40, was one of ten parachutists aboard the flight and one of two passengers who leapt out of the aircraft at around 14,000ft clad in a sleek wingsuit – a full-body contraption that lets the wearer glide like a bird.

But his exhilarating flight ended in tragedy after just 20 seconds when he collided with the wing of Alain’s plane, tearing his head clean off his shoulders and killing him instantly. 

Facing a court in Montauban, Alain described the incident as ‘the tragedy of my life’, but insisted he had not done anything wrong and blamed Galy for deviating from his flight plan, claiming he had behaved recklessly and suffered the consequences. 

Nicolas Galy, 40, dove out of the aircraft at around 14,000ft clad in a sleek wingsuit – a full-body contraption that lets the wearer glide like a bird (stock image)

The pilot said he believed he was well clear of the wingsuiters before beginning his descent, but admitted that they ‘don’t descend much and can be in conflict with the aircraft’. 

However, he insisted that Galy, an experienced parachutist with 226 jumps, ‘did not follow the expected course and never should have been on that course.

‘He was parallel to the plane… It wasn’t my responsibility, I think my flight path made sense,’ Alain told the court in comments carried by The Times.

‘This has been the tragedy of my life but I am not at fault.’

Alain’s pleas were refuted by prosecutor Jeanne Regagnon, who asked the court to hand the pilot a 12-month suspended prison term and a 10,000 euro fine, arguing that the slain wingsuiter was ‘the only one who obeyed the rules without negligence’.

It also emerged in court that Alain, 64, had flown the plane with an invalid licence.

France’s aviation authority had restricted his flying privileges due to a medical condition, yet he took to the skies regardless. 

The court is set to make its ruling in November.

It comes after a British wingsuit pilot died in July following a 400-metre drop from a mountaintop in Italy. 

Mark Andrews (pictured middle) with members of base jumping group, Learn To Base Jump

Mark Andrews, 65, originally of Redruth, Cornwall, was killed instantly after falling down the rock face in Trentino while clad in a wingsuit. 

He is thought to have been wearing a parachute, but was seemingly unable to deploy it after losing control. 

The tragic accident occurred at a popular base jumping spot in the Italian Dolomites at Paganella, near the city of Trento.

Andrews was a keen lover of base jumping and often posted clips of his escapades on social media.

The retired engineer is said to have been a relative latecomer to base jumping as a sport, but had completed nearly 600 jumps before his death.

A mountain rescue helicopter was brought in to recover his body and he was later flown to a nearby hospital before being repatriated.

A base jumper who knew Mark said: ‘He came to base jumping quite late. He’s only been doing it since 2014 but he packed a lot into those nine years.

‘He was fearless and will be missed. He was a regular in Italy at various base-jumping events, but had also base jumped all over the world off bridges and skyscrapers.‘ 

Women can see their mental health negatively affected by just 90 seconds of watching social media influencers showing off their bodies, a study says.

The images of toned legs, flat stomachs, full lips and blemish-free faces has an almost instant – and detrimental – effect on viewers’ own body self-image.

It has long been known that images of ‘ideal’ bodies and faces can cause women to feel worse about themselves and contribute to psychological and eating disorders. 

But researchers sought to discover if this was also true of exposure to short-form TikTok and Instagram videos.

‘Appearance-ideal content can pressure women to look a certain way that is unrealistic or completely unattainable,’ said Dr Jasmine Fardouly, senior author of the study. 

Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner (pictured) are among the world’s biggest social media influencers, with 364million and 380million Instagram followers respectively and millions more on TikTok

It has long been known that images of ‘ideal’ bodies and faces can cause women to feel worse about themselves and contribute to psychological and eating disorders

The images of toned legs, flat stomachs, full lips and blemish-free faces has an almost instant – and detrimental – effect on viewers’ own body self-image

‘We know this starts early, with girls as young as six reporting unhappiness with their bodies, desires to look thinner, and even dieting to lose weight.’ 

Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner are among the world’s biggest social media influencers, with 364million and 380million Instagram followers respectively and millions more on TikTok.

The team at the University of New South Wales in Australia showed 211 women aged from 17 to 28 images and videos selected from the Instagram and TikTok accounts of female social media influencers. They were then surveyed about their mood and own body image.

The team found the women compared their bodies to the women in the ‘appearance ideal’ content and invariably found themselves less attractive. Dr Fardouly added: ‘The total exposure time was only a minute and a half, and we found that was enough to have harmful impacts.’

The researchers said a further problem is that technological filters allow the social media subjects to enhance their features to unrealistic levels, leaving their audience ‘more likely to engage in negative social comparisons’.

Norway striker Ada Hegerberg stunned her teammates after walking off the pitch seconds before kick-off in their Women’s World Cup match against Switzerland. 

Star striker Hegerberg was named in the starting lineup but pulled out just before the game commenced and walked down the tunnel. 

This led to confused looks from her teammates, before Roma striker Sophie Roman Haug was eventually brought on as her replacement. 

Hegerberg, who plays club football for French side Lyon, watched on from the bench as Norway could only manage a draw in Hamilton.  

Hegerberg stunned her teammates after walking off the pitch just seconds before kick-off

Star striker Hegerberg (pictured) was named in the starting lineup but pulled out just before the game commenced as she headed off the pitch before walking down the tunnel

After the final whistle, Hegerberg said: ‘There was an acceleration just before kick-off that made me feel something. It made me not want to risk anything. 

‘I wish I could have contributed, but I think the girls worked hard. We’re missing the last piece that we need and deserved.’ 

Tweeting to explain why she left the pitch, the 28-year-old said: ‘I felt discomfort when sprinting right after the anthems. 

‘We decided with the staff that no risk should be taken and no subs should be wasted in such an important game for us, and we all trusted Sophie, Karina, and the team to do the job, which they did. We move on.’ 

After being held to a draw, Norway’s World Cup hopes hang by a thread, as they sit bottom of Group A with just one point from their opening two matches and facing an early exit. 

Meanwhile, for Switzerland, the goalless draw means they require just a point from their final group game against co-hosts New Zealand to qualify for the knockout stages. 

It’s not the first time Hegerberg has pulled out of a World Cup game – though her reasons for doing so previously caused far more controversy.

The former Ballon d’Or winner withdrew from Norway’s squad for the previous instalment of the tournament in France in 2019 as part of a multi-year protest over a perceived lack of respect for female players.

Hegerberg was infamously asked to twerk by French DJ Martin Solveig after she was presented with the Ballon d’Or in December 2018.

DJ Martin Solveig (centre) was at the centre of a sexism row after asking Ada Hegerberg if she could ‘twerk’ as she won the inaugural female Ballon d’Or in December 2018

The striker, who won the women’s Ballon d’Or award, was left unimpressed by the DJ

The Lyon striker is taking a stand over a perceived lack of respect towards female players

Hegerberg was the first female winner of the Ballon d’Or, but refused to play at the 2019 World Cup due to ongoing disagreements with the Norwegian Football Federation (NFF) over how women are treated in comparison to men.

In 2017, the NFF signed an agreement on equal pay with the country’s players association but Hegerberg continued her exile.

‘It’s not always about the money,’ she said at the time. ‘There are several changes that would need to be made before I’d evaluate returning.

‘It’s not about me having to change my opinion. It’s about what they (NFF) must do to improve themselves as both a national team and a football federation, first and foremost.

‘They still have a long way to go. There’s not more to say from my side.’

Hegerberg eventually returned to international competition in last year’s European Championship, which ended a self-imposed exile of five years from the national team.

Jason Kelce downed a massive beer in impressively fast fashion during a fundraiser on Wednesday.

The Eagles offensive lineman and his brother, Chiefs tight end Travis, bartended at Ocean Drive in Sea Isle City, New Jersey in a event benefitting the Eagles Autism Foundation and Jason’s personal charity, Team 62.

But the 35-year-old had some drinks of his own as well, racing local radio host James Seltzer in a beer-chugging contest.

Kelce finished a large glass of beer in less than six seconds, raising his arms in celebration afterwards.

It was the third time the annual event was held, and Kelce basked in the fun of it afterwards.

Jason Kelce downed a massive glass of beer in under six seconds as he raced a local radio hos

Kelce also worked behind the bar at event, which benefitted the Eagles Autism Foundation

‘It’s one of the most fun charity events that I ever done, my brother has ever done, it’s a good time, so everybody who has been here before loves it,’ he said, via CBS News Philadelphia.

‘You get to be out and about with good people all looking to have fun, it’s a good time.’

According to the Eagles, the event raised $100,000 for the Eagles Autism Foundation, and Jason’s teammates Brandon Graham and Fletcher Cox were in attendance as well.

The Kelce brothers faced off in the Super Bowl in February, with Travis’ Chiefs edging out a 38-35 win over the Eagles.

Many of us dream of being an artist at one point in our lives, but dodgy sketching can often stop us from getting there. 

Now, these dreams may soon be possible, as a new tool can transform your bad doodles into masterpieces thanks to the power of artificial intelligence (AI).

Tech giant Qualcomm unveiled its game-changing ControlNet software earlier this week, which turns image prompts into whatever you like within 12 seconds.

Unlike many other models of its kind – such as Adobe AI Firefly – ControlNet surprisingly doesn’t need the internet to function and could soon be a major mobile phone app.

While it has not yet been released, the firm claims that producing images here will be completely private, with no data backed up to a third-party cloud.

Bad sketches can be transformed into masterpieces in just under 12 seconds using ControlNet. In this demonstration, one user has inputted a drawing of a kitten and urged the model to make it ‘yellow’, ‘photo realistic’ and in ‘4k’ quality using a text prompt. The final image is displayed on the right hand side

‘Generative AI has taken the world by storm, disrupting traditional ways of creating content,’ a Qualcomm spokesman said. 

‘ControlNet allows users to input a text description of an image as well as an additional image to control the generative process.’

ControlNet comes amidst numerous similar AI tools of this kind which are most commonly referred to as language-vision models (LVMs).

These generally fuse an image encoder and a text encoder to read instructions provided by a user, before producing new content. 

While ControlNet is not yet available for public use, demonstrations show that it can produce artwork from text prompts, image prompts and both simultaneously.

Chosen images can be anything from personal drawings to photographs, while text inputs can indicate what style or ‘material’ the AI should use to produce a new version.

Water colour or oil paint could be used to generate an image for example, with these then depicted in 4k quality. 

As this process runs solely on a given device, Qualcomm claims that both its runtime and power consumption is also significantly reduced. 

The spokesman added: ‘Images are generated in under 12 seconds to provide an interactive user experience that is reliable and consistent.

‘On-device AI provides benefits in terms of cost, performance, personalisation, privacy and security at a global scale.’

In this ControlNet demonstration, one user has inputted a photograph of themselves, and it appears that the model has been asked to produce an ancient-styled piece of artwork  

It is not clear when ControlNet will be available for public use, but it will be useable on phones as shown in this Qualcomm demonstration. Here, a user has made use of the image prompt and text prompt, asking for a ‘photo realistic’ 4k photo of them

Qualcomm’s new product  follows a backlash against AI-generated image models, with numerous artists voicing their copyright concerns.

This was largely sparked by Disney illustrator, Hollie Mengert, after she found that her work was used without consent to train a new model in Canada.

Many have since debated the ethics of using artwork to train AI, with the legality of doing so also a grey area across the world. 

It is not yet clear whose images have been used to train ControlNet, but MailOnline has approached Qualcomm for further information.