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Moscow court pardons two convicts in Total CEO jet crash case

Overnight to October 21, 2014, a Falcon business jet of the French oil corporation Total staked a snowplow during takeoff from Moscow's Vnukovo airport, caught fire and crashed on the runway

MOSCOW, July 7. /TASS/. Moscow’s Solntsevsky Court pardoned two convicted employees of the Vnukovo Airport in the case of the 2014 Falcon jet crash at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport that killed four persons, including France’s oil company Total CEO Christophe de Margerie, TASS reports from court chambers.

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According to the court’s sentence, Vnukovo aerodrome engineer Vladimir Ledenyov and snowplough driver Vladimir Martynenko were recognized guilty of violating safety rules entailing the crash and sentenced to 3.5 and 4 years in standard regime penal colony. Since the crime committed by them fell under amnesty conditions timed to 70th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, their conviction was canceled. Non-conscious nature of the crime and maximal sentence not above 5 years in colony were amnesty conditions.

The persons in the defendants’ dock also include flight controller Alexander Kruglov, Vnukovo air traffic control head Roman Dunayev and taxiing controller Nadezhda Arkhipova. They face charges under part 3, article 263 of the Criminal Code of Russia ("Violation of Air Transport Safety and Operation Rules Entailing the Deaths of Two or More Persons by Negligence"). The article carries a punishment of up to 7 years in prison.

The snowplough collided with the French Falcon 50EX jet that caught fire and crashed on the runway, killing all the three crewmembers and Total CEO Christophe de Margerie at night on October 21, 2014 in Vnukovo Airport.

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