MOSCOW, June 19 (RAPSI, Oleg Sivozhelezov) – A court in Moscow will review the criminal case against the snow plow driver Vladimir Martynenko and lead airfield service engineer Vladimir Ledenev over the death of Total CEO Cristophe de Maergerie during the air crash in Russia’s Vnukovo airport under special procedure, RAPSI learnt in the court on Monday.
On Monday, the Solntsevsky District Court of Moscow held the preliminary hearings in the case. The court granted motions filed by Martynenko and Ledenev to review their case under special procedure after they pleaded guilty. The defendants are charged with violation of the rules for air traffic safety. The first hearing is set for June 30.
Earlier, the Moscow City Court upheld a ruling to return the case against other defendants, air traffic controller Alexander Kruglov, airport flight manager Roman Dunayev, and dispatcher Nadezhda Arkhipova to the prosecutors.
Christophe de Margerie died in a plane crash at Vnukovo airport on October 21, 2014, when his plane’s wing hit a snow plow. Among the victims were three crew members, all French citizens.
On October 25, 2016, the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) published its final report on investigation into the death de Maergerie. Authors of the report listed several factors, which, when combined, may have resulted in the plane crash. Among potential causes of the crash are: violation of regulations over control of alcohol use by drivers of special equipment, absence of equipment for listening to traffic controllers in snow plow machines, inefficient organization of work with subsystem of observation and control of airfield, no measures taken by the plane’s crew to prevent takeoff after receiving information about “machine that intersects a road”.