The French government pointed to possible security failings after a notorious gangster used a helicopter to stage his second brazen jailbreak of a crime career.

The latest escape of Redoine Faid, who was serving a 25-year sentence for an armed robbery in which a policewoman was killed, has left French authorities red-faced.

Faid was sprung from a prison in Paris by two accomplices who used smoke bombs and angle grinders to break into the jail and whisk the fugitive to a waiting helicopter.

Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet told Europe 1 radio that she had sent a team of inspectors to the jail "to see whether the security measures were defective so that we can rectify them."

Faid's accomplices hijacked a helicopter from a flight school on Sunday morning and forced the terrified instructor to take them to the prison, where the aircraft hovered above the yard.

Two black-clad men armed with assault rifles then set off smoke bombs before using power tools to break into the prison's visiting room, where Faid was talking to his brother.

Within 10 minutes Faid had made his escape. The helicopter was later found 60 kilometers from the prison.

The breakout comes five years after Faid blasted his way out of a prison in northern France using dynamite.

At a Paris film festival in April 2009, Faid said he was inspired by gangster movies.