Russian investigators said Tuesday that "criminal negligence" was behind the plane crash that killed the CEO of French oil giant Total when his corporate jet collided with a snow removal machine Monday night at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport.
Airport officials told Russia’s Tass news agency that the collision occurred at 11:57pm local time on Monday, killing Christophe de Margerie and three crew members, all of them French citizens."It was not a terrible tragic series of circumstances... but criminal negligence by officials" who failed to ensure that airport staff coordinated their duties, said the Investigative Committee, which reports directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In a strongly worded statement the committee's spokesman, Vladimir Markin, warned that several senior officials at Vnukovo Airport would be suspended.
"Investigators will shortly take measures to remove a number of airport staff from their duties who might hinder the investigation," Markin said.
Investigators had initially said they were focusing on the actions of the snow plough driver, who has been detained, as well as air traffic controllers, but Markin said the probe would also examine activities at the higher administrative levels of the airport.
Suspect has emerged
"Despite the fact that the first suspects have already emerged, it's also obvious that senior management of the airport is behind the negligent acts of those directly involved," Markin said.
He said investigators would also assess the "actions and non-action" of airport management.
The driver of the snow plough has been detained for 48 hours and investigators will ask a court to approve his arrest, Markin said, naming the man as Vladimir Martynenko.
Investigators said earlier that Martynenko was drunk at the time of the accident but his lawyer has denied these claims, saying his client has a heart condition and does not drink alcohol.
“He (Martynenko) is in shock. He considers himself guiltless as he followed all the instructions from the dispatcher,” lawyer Alexander Karabanov told Reuters.
He said his client would appeal against what the lawyer called the official version that Martynenko “was in a condition of alcoholic intoxication”.
“According to his relatives, he was sober in the morning and he doesn’t drink at all due to chronic heart disease. Relatives are afraid that the airport authorities are just trying to make him ultimately responsible to avoid billions in lawsuits which are for sure to follow,” Karabanov said.
The crash is being investigated by the Interstate Aviation Committee, which probes all Russian air crashes, as well as experts from Russia's federal aviation agency, the airport said earlier. The head of the federal aviation agency, Alexander Neradko, has taken charge of the investigation, the Interfax news agency reported.
'Stunned and saddened'
Total “confirms with deep regret and sadness” that its chairman and CEO died in a private plane crash at the Moscow airport, the company said in a press release dated Tuesday and posted on its website.
“The thoughts of the management and employees of the Group go out to Christophe de Margerie’s wife, children and loved ones as well as to the families of the three other victims,” the company news release said.
Accolades for De Margerie poured in from politicians and business leaders on Tuesday.
French President François Hollande said he was “stunned and saddened” by the news, while Prime Minister Manuel Valls mourned the loss of “an extraordinary business leader who turned Total into a world giant".
In a telegram sent to Hollande and published by the Kremlin, Putin said he was "shocked by the news" and asked Hollande to "pass on the most sincere condolences and words of sympathy" to De Margerie's family and loved ones.
Putin also praised the Total CEO as a "true friend of our country".
'Mr Moustache'
De Margerie, 63, known affectionately as “Mr Moustache” for his bushy facial hair, rose through the ranks at Total to become CEO in 2007, and added the post of chairman in 2010.
De Margerie joined Total after graduating from the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce in 1974, according to the company’s website. He served in several positions in the Finance Department and Exploration & Production division before becoming president of Total Middle East in 1995.
He became a member of Total’s policy-making executive committee in 1999.
Married with three children, De Margerie was the son of diplomats and business leaders and the grandson of Pierre Taittinger, founder of Taittinger champagne and the luxury goods dynasty.
He was known for his good humour, but De Margerie had also steered Total through tough times – including defending the company against allegations of corruption during the UN "oil-for-food" programme in Iraq.
Highly regarded within the oil industry, De Margerie admitted the allegations had taken their toll on the company.
"Most people, when they speak of Total, do not know what it is, but know it is not good," he said in 2009.
Paris-based Total is the fifth-largest publicly traded integrated international oil and gas company in the world, with exploration and production operations in more than 50 countries, according to a profile on the company’s website.
Total said in September that work on constructing a new natural gas liquefaction plant in Yamal in northwestern Siberia was continuing despite EU and US sanctions on Russia over its role in the conflict in Ukraine.
Total is developing the plant with Novatek of Russia and Chinese oil group CNPC.
Total announced in May that it had signed a deal with Russia's second-biggest oil firm Lukoil to explore and develop shale oil deposits in western Siberia. But De Margerie told the Financial Times last month that the project had been halted due to the Western sanctions.
(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS, AFP and AP
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