On this occasion, Faïd was in the prison visitors' room when three armed men clad in black landed a small helicopter in the facility's central courtyard, jumped out and set off smoke bombs, according to Martial Delabroye, an official at a local prison workers' union. They flew to the northeastern side of Paris — about 25 miles from the prison — before landing in the suburb of Gonesse, in a neighborhood with warehouses, small office buildings and roadways surrounded by tall leafy bushes — typically a quiet area on a Sunday morning. A manhunt was still underway Sunday evening for the inmate, Rédoine Faïd, 46, who was serving 25 years for his part in a 2010 robbery that resulted in the death of a young police officer. In that escape, Faid used explosives smuggled in to him to blast through five prison doors, took four guards hostage and used them as human shields while making his way to a getaway car and fleeing. Image copyright AFP/Getty Images Image caption Forensic police investigate the black car abandoned by Redoine Faid at a shopping centre car park

In 2009, Faid wrote a book about his experiences of growing up in Paris's crime-ridden suburbs and graduating into a life of law-breaking. As John Lichfield wrote for the Independent after the widely reported 2013 escape, Faïd was inspired by the crime bosses and schemes depicted in old Hollywood films:

As a young delinquent in a troubled suburb north of Paris, Faïd took his inspiration, and modus operandi, from American gangster movies.
Three heavily armed gunmen who hijacked a helicopter help Rédoine Faïd, one of France's most notorious gangsters, escape from a prison in Réau, Île-de-France. Police later discovered the abandoned helicopter in Gonesse. Faïd previously escaped prison in 2013 and was briefly France's most wanted criminal.