Probe into oil giant's air crash
October 21, 2014
France's elite reeled on Tuesday after the death of Total's chief at Moscow's Vnukovo airport along with three crew members of his Dassault Falcon jet. The plane bound for Paris crashed and caught fire.
De Margerie had just met Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev outside Moscow to discuss foreign investment in Russia, despite Western sanctions over the Kremlin's role in the Ukraine conflict, according to the Vedomosti business daily.
Total said its chief De Margerie and the jet's three crew members were "found dead at the scene of the accident."
'Drunk' accusation rejected
A lawyer for Vladimir Martynenko, the plough's driver, denied the claim by Russia's Interstate Aviation Committee that his client had been "in a drunken state."
The head of Russia's top level Investigative Committee, Vladimir Markin, said it was "also obvious" that the airport's senior management was "behind the negligent acts of those directly involved."
The administration of Vnukovo, one of three Moscow airports, said visibility at the time of the crash on Monday night had been 350 meters (about 383 yards) - during the first snowfall of the region's approaching winter.
'Great captain of industry'
French President Francois Hollande said he learnt of De Margerie's death with "stupor and sadness." Prime Minister Manuel Valls said France had lost a "great captain of industry."
Gas and electricity executives attending an international meeting in Paris on Tuesday held a minute of silence.
In Moscow, Martynenko's lawyer Alexander Karabanov told the Interfax news agency his client was sober at the time of the accident: "My client has a chronic heart disease, he doesn't drink at all."
"He is in shock. He considers himself guiltless as he followed all the instructions from the dispatcher," Karabanov told news agency Reuters.
Vocal opponent of sanctions
The oil boss had been a vocal opponent of Western sanctions applied on Russia, calling them a "dead end" and calling instead for dialogue.
Total investments in Russia include the Yamal project, a joint venture to tap vast natural gas reserves in northwestern Siberia.
In April, the French firm had forecast that Russia would become its biggest source of oil and gas by 2020.
Total has also struggled in recent years with production outages in Libya, Kazakhstan and Nigeria.
Putin lauds Margerie
Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Russian leader had sent his condolences, adding that he "highly valued" De Margerie's "business qualities" as well as his "staunch" commitment to Russian-French ties.
Russia's air safety record is patchy. In December 2012, a Russian airliner flying without passengers slid off the runway on landing, killing four its crew members.
ipj/nm (Reuters, AFP, AP)