( CNN ) -- A snowplow driver who 's been blamed by Russian authorities for a plane crash that killed the chief executive of the oil company Total has been sent to pretrial detention , his lawyer said Thursday . Snowplow driver Vladimir Martynenko has denied claims by Russian officials that he was drunk at the time of the crash Monday at Moscow 's Vnukovo International Airport . Total CEO Christophe de Margerie and three others were killed after his plane hit the snowplow during takeoff and crashed . Four other airport employees have also been detained in connection with the crash , a Russian investigative committee said earlier . They are : the airport service chief engineer , Vladimir Ledenev , who 's in charge of snow-clearing operations ; flights director Roman Dunayev ; air traffic controller Svetlana Krivsun ; and the airport 's chief air traffic controller , Alexander Kruglov . `` Investigators believe the detained persons failed to provide safety requirements concerning flights and on-ground works and it led to the tragedy , '' a statement from the investigative committee said . `` They have been detained and questioned as suspects in the case . '' Amid the fallout from the incident , the airport 's director general , Andrei Dyakov , and deputy director general Sergei Solntsev have resigned , the airport said in a statement Thursday . Their resignations have been accepted . The airport 's shift director , the head of the airport 's maintenance division and the leading engineer who heads the shift have been suspended from duties . Blood test . Martynenko 's lawyer , Aleksandr Karabanov , told CNN that a court decided Thursday to place him in detention . `` The judge explained her decision , saying that the court decided that Martynenko could escape , put pressure on trial participants or destroy the evidence , '' Karabanov said . He said the judge had also introduced a doctor 's certificate with results of a preliminary medical examination . She said that according to that data , Martynenko was found to be drunk , but the final results would be known and announced in five to seven days . `` I found it 's ridiculous and it makes no sense , '' Karabanov said . `` During that medical examination , Martynenko had a blood test that would show whether there was alcohol in his blood . It always takes only a day or two to get the results . Why are we still not given any ? '' He said he was convinced his client was sober at the time . Log book . Karabanov said at a news conference Wednesday that Martynenko had passed a daily `` medical examination '' that all snowplow operators at the airport are required to take before reporting for duty . The lawyer said the results of the test were recorded in a log book that investigators now have . According to the lawyer , Martynenko became separated from a convoy of snowplows after he heard a strange sound and stopped briefly to check his equipment . The lawyer speculated that an unnamed air traffic controller saw the other snowplows in the convoy and cleared the runway without realizing that Martynenko 's machine was still there . The French government has deployed three investigators and two technical consultants from its aviation authority to also investigate the crash . CNN 's Alla Eshchenko and Phil Black reported from Moscow , and Laura Smith-Spark wrote in London .
NEW : Judge orders snowplow driver involved in crash to be held in pretrial detention . Director general of the airport and his deputy resign from their posts . three other people are detained over a crash that killed the head of a Russian oil firm . Total CEO Karabanov and Four others were killed in the crash in London .