Winter comes early in Russia and a light snow fell on Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport two days ago. A snowplow cleared the runway, but failed to leave a clear path for a corporate jet’s take-off shortly before midnight. The Dassault Falcon 50 struck the snow removal machine and disintegrated upon impact.
None of the 3-man flight crew and its passenger survived the crash.
The passenger was Christophe De Margerie, CEO of the French oil giant TOTAL.
He was renown for his distinctive mustache and loyalty to Russian oil interests, saying in a July interview that Europe should stop thinking about cutting its dependence on Russian gas and focus instead on making those deliveries safer.
De Margerie, a strong proponent of fracking, had signed a multi-billion Euro contract with Russia to exploit northwest Siberia.
De Margerie also said in that interview that Europe could not live without Russian gas, adding there was no reason to do so.
His family had a history of fascism.
A rich man on his way home to celebrate his triumph of corporate greed at the cost of virgin Earth.
The driver of the snowplow was uninjured in the accident, although authorities stated that he had been drunk at the time.
A state of normalcy for a Russian male, but thereafter Mr. Martynenko’s lawyer claimed that the driver suffered from heart problems and didn’t drink alcohol. There was less than an inch of snow on the runway and according to a report from BBC Mr. Martynenko told Russia’s Channel One TV, “When I lost my bearings I did not notice when I drove out on to the runway. The plane was preparing to take off, and I practically didn’t see it or hear it because the machine was running. I didn’t even see the lights, I did not see a thing, and then the crash happened.”
Police had since arrested a senior airport engineer responsible for snow removal, an air traffic controller trainee and her supervisor, as well as a senior air traffic controller.
None of it makes much sense, but then nothing does when the truth is not the truth, still I applaud the snowplow driver’s blow against Big Oil.
Hero of the People in my book, then again I live in the past.