MOSCOW, October 22 (RIA Novosti) – French experts are ready to provide technical data about the plane that crashed in Vnukovo Airport to the Moscow-based air disaster investigation body, a representative for the French authority responsible for safety probes into civil aviation incidents (BEA) said Wednesday.
"We will be able to help to decipher the recorders" and ready to provide any "technical details" about the jet to help the investigators, Francois Hochart told Russia's Channel One.
French experts arrived in Moscow to assist the Interstate Aviation Committee's inquiry into the plane crash and plan to stay here for four or five days, he added.
The Interstate Aviation Committee, an air disaster investigation authority in Russia and other ex-Soviet states, announced Tuesday it had set up a special commission to investigate the plane crash in Vnukovo and formally notified France of the incident.
A business jet departing for Paris crashed late Monday night at Vnukovo-3 Airport in Moscow after hitting a snowplow during takeoff. None of the four people on board – Total CEO Christophe de Margerie and three crew members – survived 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. Investigators are also checking if the plane could have crashed due to bad weather conditions or a mistake by the pilot.
The committee claims the snowplow driver was drunk at the time of the accident, but the driver, Vladimir Martynenko, has denied the allegations.
