Vladimir Martynenkov, the operator of the snow-clearing machine which Total CEO Christophe de Margerie's plane collided with at Moscow's Vnukovo airport late on Oct. 20, does not drink alcohol, his lawyer Alexander Karabanov told on Oct. 21.
“My client suffers from a chronic heart condition. He does not drink alcohol. His relatives and doctors can confirm this,” he said.
“He was sober at the time of the accident,” the lawyer said.
A large defense team will represent Martynenkov’s interests, he said.
“We do not want an ordinary person to be made responsible for this accident,” Karabanov said.
Russian Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said earlier that the operator of a snow-clearing machine with which de Margerie’s Falcon airplane collided at the Vnukovo airport had reportedly been drunk.
Four people were killed in the accident.
“Three crew members and a passenger – chairman of French company Total Christophe de Margerie – died as a result of the air crash,” Markin said.
Investigators believe that a Falcon-300 four-seater airplane on a Moscow-Paris flight collided with a snow-clearing machine during takeoff from Moscow’s Vnukovo-3 airport at around midnight on Monday, Markin said. The plane then caught fire and crashed onto the runway.
