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Jet crash at Moscow airport

Сase of Falcon jet crash at Moscow Vnukovo airport referred to court

MOSCOW, June 21. /TASS/. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office has referred to court the criminal case over the crash of the Falcon jet of head of France’s oil company Total Christophe de Margerie at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport on October 20, 2014.

Spokesman for the Prosecutor General’s Office Alexander Kurennoi told TASS that Russian Deputy Prosecutor General Viktor Grin approved the indictment within the criminal case opened under Article 263, part 3 of the Russian Criminal Code (violation of the rules for safe air traffic and aircraft operation rules that resulted in the death of two or more people) over the crash at Vnukovo airport of the plane flying on the route from Moscow to Paris. The criminal case has been referred to Moscow’s Solntsevo District Court for the examination on its merits.

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The criminal case has been referred to Moscow’s Solntsevo District Court for the examination on its merits.

The defendants in the case are personnel members of the Vnukovo airdrome maintenance and traffic control services - Nadezhda Arkhipova, Roman Dunayev, Alexander Kruglov, Vladimir Ledenyov and Vladimir Martynenko.

According to investigators, a snowplough driven by Martrynenko entered a runway at Vnukovo airport on October 20, 2014 due to the lack of proper coordination between the air traffic control and airdrome maintenance services that was to be ensured by flight operations director Dunayev, due to negligence of air traffic controllers Arkhipova and Kruglov, as well as because chief engineer Ledenyov lost control over his subordinates.

As a result, the snowplough collided with the French Falcon 50EX jet that caught fire and crashed on the runway, killing all the four people on board, including Total CEO Christophe de Margerie. As a result, the French air company UniJet suffered material damage worth in excess of 741 million rubles ($11.53 million), and Vnukovo JSC - some 1.2 million rubles ($18, 674), due to the snowplough damage.

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