French Total CEO Plane Crash Defenders Face Two Civil Suits

The victims in the 2014 crash that led to the death of French Total oil and gas company CEO Christophe de Margerie in Russia face two civil lawsuits totaling nearly $230,000, one of the defenders’ lawyers said Thursday.

"So far two civil suits have been declared: 1.2 million rubles [$18,000] from Vnukovo airport and 14 million rubles [$211,000] from Unijet [airplane operator]," Leonid Kurakin told RIA Novosti.

Earlier in the day, a snowplow machine driver and a senior shift engineer admitted their guilt in the crash in a Moscow courtroom.

De Margerie died on the night from October 20 to October 21, 2014, when his business jet crashed in Moscow’s Vnukovo airport. De Margerie was the only passenger on board the aircraft in addition to three French crew members who also died in the crash.

The prosecutor's office has brought charges against snowplow driver Vladimir Martynenko, whose vehicle hit against the plane during takeoff, provoking the crash, as well as senior shift engineer Vladimir Ledenev and air traffic controllers Roman Dunaev, Aleksander Kruglov and Nadezhda Arkhipova.

The air traffic controllers continue to maintain their innocence.