Updated 12:10 p.m. Moscow Time
MOSCOW, October 21 (RIA Novosti) – French oil giant Total’s share price on the Euronext stock exchange dropped 2 percent Tuesday after the death of the company's chief executive in a plane crash in Moscow, according to market data.
On the Euronext Exchange, Total's stocks dropped by 2 percent on the Paris market after news from Moscow verified that CEO Christophe de Margerie had died in a crash with a snowplow on the runway of Vnukovo Airport late Monday night, killing all four individuals on board the aircraft.
The Falcon 50 business jet crashed late Monday night in the Vnukovo-3 Airport in Moscow after the aircraft hit a snow removal vehicle on takeoff. The aircraft was flying from Moscow to Paris with de Margerie as the only passenger on board besides three crew members, also French citizens.
Russia’s Investigative Committee is considering four causes of the crash at this time. It could have been the pilot’s fault, or the fault of air traffic control, as well as that of the snowplow driver, or bad weather conditions. Russian investigators have confirmed that the driver of the snowplow was drunk.
Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences over the Total chief executive’s death.
De Margerie was born in 1951. He joined Total in 1974 after graduating from the Ecole Superieure de Commerce in Paris. He served in several positions in the Finance Department and the Exploration & Production division. In May 2006, he was appointed to the company's board of directors. He became chief executive of Total on February 14, 2007. Since May 2010, he served as chairman of the company.
