Oil giant Total CEO dies in Moscow crash
Christophe de Margerie’s jet hit snowplough on takeoff; machine operator ‘ drunk’
Moscow, Oct. 21: Russian investigators on Tuesday accused senior airport officials of criminal negligence over a plane crash at a Moscow airport that killed the CEO of French oil giant Total, Christophe de Margerie, whose private jet hit a snowplough on takeoff.
Several executives would be suspended, the investigators said, adding that the driver of the snowclearing machine was drunk on the job — a claim disputed by his lawyer.
At Total, one of the world’s biggest oil companies, staff at its Paris headquarters observed a minute’s silence for their 63- year- old boss who had been known by the affec- tionate nickname “Big Moustache” for sporting one.
“The group is set up to ensure the proper continuity of its governance and its activities, to deal with this tragic event,” Total’s secretary- general JeanJacques Guilbaud said, as top executives were due to hold an emergency meeting.
While respected by the industry for expanding Total’s activities around the world, De Margerie was also often mired in controversy as he led the group when it was embroiled in judicial woes, including the UN “oil- forfood” scandal.
Just hours before the crash, De Margerie had met Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev at his country residence outside Moscow to discuss foreign investment in Russia, the Vedomosti business daily reported, despite Western sanctions over Moscow’s role in the Ukraine conflict. Even as relations between the West and Russia deteriorated to the worst since the Cold War, the French oil boss had been critical of the sanctions, calling them “a dead- end” and urging “constructive dialogue” instead.
In his last public remarks in Moscow, De Margerie urged Russia to “do the necessary to fix the situation” with the West.
But he also said Total’s strategy “remains absolutely unchanged. We are engaged with Russia”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin described De Margerie as “a true friend of our country, whom we will remember with the greatest warmth”.
In France, President Francois Hollande said he learnt of De Margerie’s death with “shock and sadness”, while Prime Minister Manuel Valls said France had lost “a great captain of industry and a patriot”.
Total said De Margerie died around 2000 GMT after the crash at Vnukovo Airport, along with three crew members.
Vnukovo airport said the Falcon Dassault business aviation jet crashed as it prepared to take off for Paris and that rescue services had put out a blaze.
Visibility was 350 metres ( yards) at the time, it said, as Moscow saw its first snowfall of the winter on Monday.
The Interstate Aviation Committee, which investigates all Russian air accidents, said “it has been established that the driver of the snowplough was in a drunken state”.
It added that a preliminary theory was that “an error by air traffic controllers and the actions of the snowplough driver” were to blame.
The possible role of “bad weather and errors by pilots will also be checked,” it said, as France dispatched three experts to join in the investigation.
The committee also blamed senior airport offi- cials for causing the accident through “criminal negligence” as they failed to ensure proper staff coordination.
Moscow transport investigators said they had opened a criminal probe into breaches of aviation safety rules causing multiple deaths through negligence, which carries a maximum jail term of seven years.
The snowplough driver has been detained, but his lawyer suggested that his client was being made a scapegoat. “My client has chronic heart disease, he doesn’t drink at all. His relatives and doctors can confirm this,” lawyer Alexander Karabanov told Interfax agency. — AFP