MOSCOW, October 21 (RIA Novosti) – Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday expressed his condolences to the family of Christophe de Margerie, the head of French energy giant Total, who died in a jet accident in Moscow on Monday night.
“It’s a big loss. Mr. de Margerie was a friend and a partner of our country. He always openly stated his position on all pressing issues. We will miss him,” Medvedev said.
The Russian prime minister also expressed his condolences to the families of the crew members who died in the accident.
Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences over the Total chief executive’s death earlier in the day.
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. All four people died in the crash.
Russia’s Investigative Committee is considering two main theories as to the cause of the crash - a traffic control mistake and the actions of the snowplow driver, who was found to be drunk at the time of the accident. The investigators are also checking if the plane could have crashed due to bad weather conditions or a mistake by the pilot.
A criminal investigation has been launched into a possible violation of aircraft safe-driving regulations, resulting in the death of two or more persons.
The black boxes have been recovered and are currently being processed.
