Italian police have arrested the French flight instructor who survived a deadly mid-air collision that killed seven people in Italy’s Val d’Aosta region on Friday.

Prosecutors believe Philippe Michel, 63, was on a training flight with two passengers and attempting to land on the Rutor glacier when their ultralight aircraft collided with a helicopter, which was lifting off from the glacier after picking up a tourist group at the end of a day of heli-skiing.

It is unclear who was at the controls of the French aircraft at the time of the crash. Mr Michel, who is currently recovering in a local hospital, could face charges of negligence and manslaughter.

Italian aviation authorities have said the aircraft had crossed into Italian territory on Friday without communicating a flight plan to Italian air traffic control.

The remains of the helicopter were spread over a 400-metre area, said Alpine Rescue director Paolo Comune, with bodies recovered from about 50 metres from the wreckage.

Italian police on Sunday confirmed seven people were killed in the mid-air collision in the Italian Alps on Friday, including four Germans. The other victims were from Italy, France and Belgium.

"We can't reveal the names because some of the families still don't know," one official at the joint office of Alpine rescue and police in Entreves, in the Aosta Valley, told Reuters.