Olivier Lebas

Olivier Bernard Eugene Lebas was born on 24 June 1964 in Boulogne-sur-Mer, in the Pas-de-Calais department of northern France. He spent his youth in Marquise, attending the Saint-Martin school there and then the Nazareth-Haffreingue lycee in Boulogne-sur-Mer. He went on to earn an engineering degree from the Institut catholique d'arts et metiers (ICAM) before deciding on a naval career, and entered the French Navy in September 1987.

Lebas trained as a fighter pilot in French naval aviation and flew the Vought F-8 Crusader and the Dassault Super Etendard. He took part in French operations over Kosovo, Afghanistan, Libya and Iraq, and on one occasion landed his seriously damaged aircraft back on the deck of the carrier Foch. He also served aboard the carrier Clemenceau. From 2001 to 2003 he commanded the 17F flotilla, a Super Etendard squadron.

In 2003 he attended the Ecole de guerre, France's joint staff college, and from 2007 to 2008 he commanded the stealth frigate Aconit. In 2011 he spent six months at the NATO Defence College in Rome while serving as second in command of the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle. That August, newly promoted to captain, he was handed command of the Charles de Gaulle by the chief of naval staff, Admiral Pierre-Francois Forissier, at a ceremony held at sea in the Mediterranean during Operation Harmattan off Libya. He commanded the carrier until 2013.

He then led the French rapid reaction air and maritime force and held responsibilities in multinational naval forces in the Indian Ocean and within NATO. From 2016 to 2019, as a rear admiral, he commanded the carrier strike group built around the Charles de Gaulle, which took part in Operation Chammal against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. In December 2016 he told Le Figaro that the carrier had fulfilled its mission against the group.

Promoted to vice-admiral in 2019, he took office on 3 September 2020 as maritime prefect of the Atlantique, succeeding Vice-Admiral Jean-Louis Lozier. Based in Brest, he was responsible for the state's action at sea from the bay of Mont-Saint-Michel to the Spanish border and commanded the Atlantic maritime zone, whose area of operations stretched from Africa to the far north and the Baltic. Local officials credited him with helping keep sea safety arrangements running along the Brittany coast during the Covid period. He left active service in 2023 and joined Airbus as a defence adviser. In retirement he continued to take part in the work of the Navy's Centre for Strategic Studies.

Lebas was married to Perrine and was the father of four children. Colleagues described him as a man of conviction and faith who was notably modest about an exceptional record. He was an accomplished sportsman with solid mountaineering experience.

Olivier Lebas died on 12 August 2026, aged 62, in a mountaineering accident in the Luchonnais massif of the Pyrenees, in Haute-Garonne. He was part of a group of five climbers in two rope teams on the Jeannel ridge of the Pic des Spijeoles, a 3,066 metre peak above the Lac du Portillon. During the third pitch, while he was leading his rope team, a rock broke away from the face, threw him off balance and he fell about 40 metres. The alarm was raised at about 9.45 that morning. CRS mountain rescuers and a Gendarmerie helicopter with a doctor on board reached him and attempted resuscitation, but he could not be revived. The other four climbers were brought down safely.

The French Navy announced his death the same day. The maritime prefect of the Atlantique, Vice-Admiral Marc Antoine de Saint Germain, saluted "the humility of an extraordinary sailor". Admiral Christophe Cluzel, chief of staff of the Navy, said he had devoted a large part of his life to the service of France and that he had always appreciated him for his courage, determination, humility and kindness. General Jerome Pellistrandi, who had studied alongside him in Rome, called him a man of conviction, commitment and faith.

Lebas is remembered as one of the most experienced officers of his generation in the French Navy, a carrier pilot who went on to command the Charles de Gaulle and then its whole strike group in combat operations. His honours included appointment as a commander of the Legion of Honour, the Croix de guerre des theatres d'operations exterieures and the Croix de la Valeur militaire. In Brittany he was also remembered for his work as maritime prefect, including arrangements for sea safety that continue along the coast at Cancale.