Moscow - Christophe de Margerie, chief executive of French oil company Total, and another three persons died when their Falcon-50 airplane crashed at Moscow's Vnukovo airport.
“The latest information available confirms that four people have died: three crew members and a passenger of the Falcon plane, which belongs to a French air carrier,” Tatyana Morozova, spokesperson for the Russian Investigative Committee’s Moscow interregional transport investigative department, told Interfax.
All of them were citizens of France, she added.
Total, for its part, has confirmed de Margerie’s death in the air crash.
“Total confirms with deep regret and great sadness that Chairman and CEO Christophe de Margerie died just after 10: 00 p.m. (Paris time) on Oct. 20 in a private plane crash at Vnukovo Airport in Moscow, following a collision with a snow removal machine,” the French oil company said in a statement.
Russian investigators have blamed human error for the air crash at the Vnukovo airport, head of the Investigative Committee’s department Ivan Sibul told Interfax on Tuesday.
“Pilot error, violations of the rules for transport movement on the premises of an airport, as well as incorrect actions by air traffic control services are being considered as the most likely causes,” Sibul said.
Bad weather could be responsible for the air crash as well, he said.
Experts have already found the plane’s flight data recorders, a Vnukovo airport source told Interfax.
“The ‘black boxes’ have been found. They will be examined. They have no visible damage,” the source said.
No flights are currently arriving or departing from the Vnukovo airport, sources in Moscow’s emergency services told Interfax.
All departing flights have been delayed and all incoming flights are being diverted to other airports, one of the sources said.
Four flights have already been delayed at the Vnukovo airport, he said.
