Cyane Panine was considered one of greater than 100 people inside a bar on the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana when disaster struck on Recent 12 months’s Eve.
The 24-year-old waitress quickly became referred to as ‘la Fille au Casque’ – or The Girl within the Helmet – after pictures circulated of her masked and waving champagne bottles with sparklers.
That night, as 2026 dawned, a complete of 40 people died and 116 were injured after spending the evening at La Constellation bar.
An investigation found that it was likely that the tragedy unfolded after the bar’s ceiling, clad in acoustic foam, caught fire.
Nevertheless Ms Panine’s parents have since spoken out at their devastation that their daughter has change into related to the reason behind the incident on the venue, whose owners are actually the topic of a criminal investigation.
Jerome and Astrid recall their daughter as ‘spontaneous, radiant and filled with heart’.
Grieving mother Astrid said she would remember Ms Panine as ‘an elusive butterfly; the sort one longs to catch and immortalise’.
The couple told Every day Mail her death was a reminder of ‘all young people who find themselves cut down of their prime’.
Cyane, named for the color of her eyes, accompanied her family on a UNESCO-backed around the world sailing adventure to advertise water conservation, when she was just 11.
She was considered a ‘stepdaughter’ by La Constellation co-owner Jacques Moretti, who acquired the bar together with his while Jessica in 2015.
Mr Moretti is currently in pre-trial detention due to his previous criminal record.
The French couple are facing charges of manslaughter in addition to bodily harm and arson, all by negligence, for which they may serve as much as 20 years in prison if found guilty.
Ms Panine’s lawyer has since suggested that the waitress didn’t receive safety training on her job, for which she didn’t even have an employment contract.
The 24-year-old was also allegedly forced to work long hours, leaving her each mentally and physically exhausted.
Due to her lack of safety training, she was unaware that the ceiling’s acoustic foam was highly flammable and potentially lethal if set alight.
Despite laws requiring annual fire safety checks, it transpired the bar had not been inspected since 2019.
So as to add to questions, Ms Panine was instructed by Mr Moretti to get the ‘atmosphere going’ on the night horror broke out.
This specifically meant wearing a crash helmet, supplied by Champagne giant Dom Perignon, while holding several bottles of bubbly topped with sparklers.
The gimmicked mask meant that Ms Panine wouldn’t see the disaster unfolding round her because the nightclub was set ablaze.
A now infamous picture shows the young woman being held up by barman Matthieu Aubrun, 27, who himself was wearing a mask.
Of people who died, around 85 per cent are estimated to have been trapped within the bar’s basement after struggling to evacuate up the venue’s single staircase.
A second ‘service door’ which might have been an escape route was locked, in response to the owners to stop people from entering the bar without paying.
Nevertheless Ms Panine’s parents imagine it further exacerbated the tragic events of Recent 12 months’s Eve.
”If the door had been open, perhaps there wouldn’t have been deaths,’ Jerome said.
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