CEO of oil giant Total killed in Moscow plane crash
Authorities say the private jet hit a snow plough, whose driver was found drunk, on take-off
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 21 October, 2014, 8:56am
UPDATED : Tuesday, 21 October, 2014, 6:09pm
Agence France-Presse in Moscow
Christophe de Margerie, CEO of the French oil and gas company Total SA, addresses during a press conference in Paris in this 2011 photo. Photo: AP
The CEO of French oil company Total, Christophe de Margerie died in a plane crash at a Moscow airport after his private jet struck a snow plough on take-off.
Total confirmed the death of the 63-year-old early on Tuesday.
“The Total Group confirms with great and profound sadness that its CEO Christophe de Margerie died last night shortly after 10pm (Paris time) in an air crash at Vnukovo airport in Moscow following a collision with a snow removing machine,” Total said in a statement.
Just hours earlier 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.
The Vnukovo airport said in a statement that the Falcon Dassault business aviation jet crashed as it prepared to take off for Paris with one passenger and three crew on board.
“During run-up at 11.57pm, there was a collision with the airport’s snow plough. As a result of the crash, the passenger and all the crew members died,” the airport’s statement said.
The driver of the snow plough was drunk, Russia’s Investigative Committee said. "At the moment, it is already established that the driver of the snow plough was in a condition of alcoholic intoxication," said Russia’s Investigative Committee, an agency which answers to President Vladimir Putin.
The airport said that visibility was at 350 metres at the time of the accident. Moscow saw its first snowfall of the winter on Monday.
The airport said its rescue services were sent to the scene and “immediately started extinguishing a fire that had broken out”.
A spokeswoman for transport investigators, Tatyana Morozova, told Interfax that the dead included two other men and a 39-year-old woman.
The crash is being investigated by the Interstate Aviation Committee, which probes all Russian air crashes, and experts from Russia’s federal aviation agency, the airport said.
The head of the federal aviation agency, Alexander Neradko, has taken charge of the investigation, Interfax reported.
The plane’s black boxes have been removed, airport spokeswoman Yelena Krylova told RIA Novosti news agency.
Moscow transport investigators said in a statement that 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.
French experts were set to take part in the investigation, Interfax reported, citing a source in the rescue operation. “The French side is informed. They should send experts. This will happen very soon,” the source was cited as saying.
The airport was closed temporarily to clear up the scene of the accident but resumed normal operations at 1.30am.
De Margerie had been chief executive of Total, Europe’s third-largest oil company, since 2007.
He had worked for the company for 40 years, spending his entire career there, and was known affectionately as the “Big Moustache” because of his prominent facial hair which was his most striking feature.
The son of diplomats and business leaders, he was the grandson of Pierre Taittinger, founder of Taittinger champagne and the luxury goods dynasty.
Married with three children, he was known for his good humour but De Margerie had 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.
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 also 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 Western sanctions.
With additional reporting from Reuters
