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October 22, 2014

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Russia blames ‘negligent’ airport bosses for Total CEO’s fatal crash

Source: AFP | October 22, 2014, Wednesday | Print Edition

RUSSIAN investigators yesterday 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 snowplow on takeoff.

Several executives would be suspended, the investigators said, adding that the driver of the snow-clearing 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 was known by the affectionate nickname “Big Moustache.”

“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 Jean-Jacques 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 allegations of corruption during the UN “oil-for-food” program in Iraq.

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, urging “constructive dialogue” instead.

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.”

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.

The Interstate Aviation Committee, which investigates all Russian air accidents, said “it has been established that the driver of the snowplow was in a drunken state”.

A preliminary theory was that “an error by air traffic controllers and the actions of the snowplow driver” were to blame.

The committee also blamed senior airport officials 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.

The snowplow driver has been detained, but his lawyer said that his client was being made a scapegoat.

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