A snowplough driver at a
Moscow airport has said he lost his bearings before a collision with a
private plane in which Total boss Christophe de Margerie died.
Vladimir Martynenko told Russian TV he was unaware he had entered the runway.
Mr Margerie, 63, chief executive of the French oil firm, was killed in the crash along with three crew members.
Russian investigators have alleged that the driver of the snowplough was drunk at the time, but his family has denied this.
The Russian authorities have launched a criminal investigation. Mr Martynenko, 60, was detained after the crash, which took place in poor weather at Vnukovo airport, south-west of Moscow, at around midnight on Monday.
His family insisted he was not drunk. "My client has chronic heart disease, he doesn't drink at all," his lawyer Alexander Karabanov told Interfax news agency.
"When I lost my bearings I did not notice when I drove out on to the runway," Mr Martynenko told Russia's Channel One TV.
"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."
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