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Total boss killed in plane crash: investigators blame drunk driver | Total boss killed in plane crash: investigators blame drunk driver |
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The driver of a snow plough involved in a deadly plane crash that killed the head of French oil company Total was drunk, according to Russian investigators. | The driver of a snow plough involved in a deadly plane crash that killed the head of French oil company Total was drunk, according to Russian investigators. |
Christophe de Margerie, the 63-year old chief executive of Total, died when a private jet collided with a snow plough at Moscow’s Vnukovo international airport on Monday night, shortly before midnight. All three members of the crew were also killed. | |
Russia’s Investigative Committee, an agency which answers to President Vladimir Putin, said: “At the moment, it is already established that the driver of the snow plough was in a condition of alcoholic intoxication.” | |
The committee has opened a criminal investigation into breach of safety standards. According to Russian news agency TASS, the driver of the snow plough is being questioned and several airport employees will “probably” be suspended from work during the investigation. | |
In a statement the oil company said: “Total confirms with deep regret and great sadness that chairman and CEO Christophe de Margerie died just after 10pm (Paris time) on October 20 in a private plane crash at Vnukovo airport in Moscow, following a collision with a snow removal machine.” | In a statement the oil company said: “Total confirms with deep regret and great sadness that chairman and CEO Christophe de Margerie died just after 10pm (Paris time) on October 20 in a private plane crash at Vnukovo airport in Moscow, following a collision with a snow removal machine.” |
France’s prime minister Manuel Valls, who said he had lost a personal friend, led tributes to de Margerie, who became chief executive of Total in 2007. “France is losing an extraordinary business leader who turned Total into a world giant.” | |
President François Hollande said he was stunned and saddened, while Pierre Moscovici, France’s former finance minister, paid tribute to de Margerie as “a great captain of industry, a patriot, a man of conviction and friendship”. | |
Touché par la mort de C. de Margerie: un grand capitaine d'industrie, un patriote, un homme de conviction et d'amitié. Tristesse et respect | Touché par la mort de C. de Margerie: un grand capitaine d'industrie, un patriote, un homme de conviction et d'amitié. Tristesse et respect |
Tributes also poured in from the business world, including Lord Browne, the former chief executive of BP, who said de Margerie was “a creative, inspiring, breath of fresh air”. | |
A very sad day. Christophe de Margerie of @Total was a creative, inspiring, breath of fresh air, severely missed by me and the oil industry. | |
Putin sent condolences in a telegram to theÉlysée presidential palace, where he described de Margerie as an outstanding entrepreneur. “We have lost a genuine friend of our country,” he said. Putin’s spokesmen Dmitry Peskov told Russian news wires that Putin had been in “close working contact” with de Margerie and appreciated his contribution to French-Russian relations. | |
Russia’s former finance minister Alexei Kudrin said de Margerie had done a lot to bring investment to Russia and described his death as a “heavy tragedy”. | |
Hours before his death de Margerie met the Russian prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, at his country residence outside Moscow to discuss foreign investment in Russia, according to the business daily Vedomosti. | |
The French businessman, known affectionately as ‘big moustache’, was a well-known and outspoken figure in the energy world. A scion of the Tattinger champagne family and graduate of the elite Ecole Superieure de Commerce in Paris, he was a staunch advocate of doing business with Russia. | |
As western relations with Russia worsened during the Ukraine crisis, he criticised European and US sanctions for driving Moscow into the arms of China - illustrated by a $400bn Sino-Russian gas deal signed in May. | |
De Margerie said then that Europe could not live without Russian gas and there was no reason to try to reduce its dependency. | |
“Are we going to build a new Berlin Wall?” he told Reuters in July. “Russia is a partner and we shouldn’t waste time protecting ourselves from a neighbour … What we are looking to do is not to be too dependent on any country, no matter which. Not from Russia, which has saved us on numerous occasions.” | |
Total is one of the biggest foreign investors in Russia, which accounts for almost 10% of its oil and gas output. | |
This is set to grow as Total seeks to exploit vast natural gas reserves in the Arctic in a a $27bn joint venture with Russian gas producer Novatek and China’s CNPC. De Margerie insisted the project would not be affected by western sanctions, even though Novatek appears on the west’s blacklist. However, Total was forced to cancel a joint venture with Lukoil to search for shale oil in western Siberia. | |
Russian investigators announced they had opened a criminal investigation into the accident, which once again puts Russia’s poor air safety record under the spotlight. The plane’s black boxes had been removed for examination and French authorities will be invited to take part in the investigation. | |
The airport, which is southwest of Moscow, is regularly used by political leaders, including Putin. In 2012, a Russian plane flying without passengers broke into pieces after it slid off the runway upon landing and crashed onto a highway outside Vnukovo Airport, killing four of the eight crew. | |