MOSCOW, October 24. /TASS/. A Moscow court on Friday ordered house arrest for the head of flights at Moscow's Vnukovo airport, Roman Dunayev, on suspicion of involvement into a plane crash which killed the CEO of French oil company Total Christophe de Margerie, a TASS correspondent reported from the courtroom.
Judge Valentina Levashova said the court found a request by investigators “reasonable and lawful,” taking into consideration that the accused had three dependent children, his wife was on maternity leave and he had taken out a mortgage to buy his flat.
Investigators wanted Dunayev to be held in custody until December 21 but prosecutors asked for a less restrictive preventive measure. Under the ruling of the Basmanny court of Moscow, Dunayev will stay under house arrest until December 21.
Earlier the same court ruled to extend the arrest of three other suspects held over the plane crash.
According to the order handed down by Moscow's Basmanny Court, Vladimir Ledenev, the leading airfield service engineer at the airport, who was overseeing snow clearing work on the night of the crash, Vnukovo airport's dispatcher Alexander Kruglov and dispatcher-trainee Svetlana Krivsun will be held until December 21.
While the two men will remain in police custody, Krivsun has been placed under house arrest, with the court rejecting a plea by her defense to post bail. The three suspects stand accused of neglecting safety standards ahead of the crash.
On Thursday, the same court extended the arrest of the driver of the snowplough, 60-year-old Vladimir Martynenko, until December 21, with prosecutors saying in an online statement they had found traces of alcohol in a blood sample taken on the night of the crash.
Overnight to October 21, a Falcon business jet en route from Moscow’s Vnukovo airport to Paris hit a snowplough during takeoff, caught fire and crashed on the runway, killing three crew and one passenger — CEO of the French oil major Total Christophe de Margerie. The Russian authorities have opened a criminal case on charges of abuse of air traffic and aircraft operation safety rules that caused the negligent death of two or more persons.