CEO of French oil giant Total killed in Moscow plane crash

Russian and French experts were investigating today a plane crash at a Moscow airport which killed the CEO of French oil giant Total, Christophe de Margerie, whose private jet struck a snowplough on takeoff.
Russian investigators said the driver of the snow-clearing machine was drunk and that his actions, along with "an error by air traffic controllers", appeared to have led to the crash -- a claim disputed by the driver's lawyer.
They also blamed senior airport officials for causing the accident through "criminal negligence", and said several executives would be suspended.
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 known affectionately as the "Big Moustache" because of his distinctive facial hair.

"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 helmed the group when it was embroiled in judicial woes including the UN "oil-for-food" scandal.

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 sank to their lowest since the Cold War, the oil boss had been vocal with his criticism of the sanctions, calling them "a dead-end" and urging "constructive dialogue" instead.
In his last public remarks in Moscow, De Margerie said Total's strategy "remains absolutely unchanged. We are engaged with Russia".
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" while Prime Minister Manuel Valls said France had lost "a great captain of industry and a patriot".

Total said De Margerie died just after 0130 IST 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.
Visibility was 350 metres at the time, it said, as Moscow saw its first snowfall of the winter yesterday.
The Interstate Aviation Committee, which investigates all Russian air accidents, said "it has been established that the driver of the snowplough was in a drunken state".
It added that a primary preliminary theory was that "an error by air traffic controllers and the actions of the snowplough driver" were to blame.

The possible role of "bad weather and errors by pilots will also be checked," it said, as France dispatched three experts to join in the investigation.