Christophe de Margerie, the CEO of French oil giant Total, was killed when his business jet collided with a snow removal machine at Moscow's Vnukovo international airport Monday.
"Total confirms with deep regret and great sadness that chairman and CEO Christophe de Margerie died just after 10pm (Paris time) on October 20 in a private plane crash at Vnukovo airport in Moscow, following a collision with a snow removal machine," the company said in a statement, The Guardian reports.
The collision happened just before midnight when the Dassault Falcon business jet, headed for France, collided with the snow removal machine during takeoff, killing de Margerie and three crew members, the Vnukovo airport said in a statement.
Airport officials said that visibility at the time of the crash was 350 meters.
Investigators in Moscow said that they have started a criminal inquiry into violations of aviation safety rules resulting in multiple deaths through negligence.
De Margerie, 63, known as "Mr. Moustache" for his bushy facial hair, was in Moscow to attend a Russian government meeting on foreign investment in Gorki, near Moscow, Monday. Hours before his death, De Margerie had met Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to discuss foreign investment in Russia, the Guardian reported citing Vedomosti business daily.
De Margarie, a graduate of the Ecole Superieure de Commerce business school in Paris, became chief executive officer of Total in February 2007. He took on the additional role of chairman in May 2010.
Meanwhile, France's Prime Minister Manuel Valls paid tribute to De Margerie Tuesday saying that the country had lost a great industrial captain.
"France is losing a company chief out of the ordinary who knew how to transform Total into a global giant," Valls said expressing his "profound sadness" over the death and the loss of "a friend", reports The Wall Street Journal.
