Up To Three Tesla Execs Dead in Plane Crash

[SVT666]

Up To Three Tesla Execs Dead in Plane Crash
BY MARK KLEIS

Up to three Tesla executives were killed when the plane they were in crashed shortly after take off this morning in Palo Alto, California.

According to a report by the San Francisco Chronicle, at around 7:55 a.m. this morning a Cessna 310 airplane carrying what is believed to be two passengers and a pilot crashed shortly after takeoff in a local neighborhood. The owner of the plane is Doug Bourn, senior electrical engineer for Tesla Motors.

Although it is very early into the investigation as to what caused the crash, some speculate that thick fog may have caused the plane to collide with power lines, which reportedly caused the plane to explode on impact. The wreckage landed on a few vehicles and two homes, setting them on fire, but no injuries were reported on the ground. All three occupants of the plane are confirmed deceased. Confirmation of the single executive?s and two employees? names has not yet been obtained.

Daniel Morales told KTVU news that he had previously flown with the pilot and was at the airport during takeoff this morning. He confirmed only that the pilot was a high-ranking executive for Tesla Motors, and that the plane also carried two other employees.

[NomisR]

They took off in foggy conditions, I think 1/8th mile visibility in a Cessna. 

[sportyaccordy]

Is it too early for electrical failure jokes?

RIP.

[JWC]

Is it too early for electrical failure jokes?

RIP.

I chickened out earlier on saying that three jobs had opened up at Tesla Motors.

[cawimmer430]

Was this a hybrid plane that just ran out of battery power? Sorry, bad joke. Couldn't resist. 


RIP

[Byteme]

They took off in foggy conditions, I think 1/8th mile visibility in a Cessna.  

There is more to this than the fog.  They were off course and over a mile from the end of the runway when they hit a power line at an altitude of about 60 feet.  They should have been several hunderd feet higher than that at that distance from the airport.  There would appear to be more to this than the fog.  The airplane was a 1976 model which means carburators, which means carburator icing and the resultant loss of power, may have been a factor.  You can experience carubrator icing at temps well above freezing in high humidity (fog) conditions.

As the article states, it's the pilot's call whether to take off or not.  I wouldn't have, but I'm extremely cautious.


3 Tesla workers die in East Palo Alto plane crash
Jill Tucker, Henry K. Lee,Nanette Asimov, Chronicle Staff Writers

Thursday, February 18, 2010




(02-17) 19:01 PST EAST PALO ALTO -- It will take months for investigators to determine why a small plane veered off course just after taking off Wednesday from the fogged-in Palo Alto Airport, clipped power lines and plunged into an East Palo Alto neighborhood, killing all three people onboard and damaging four houses.


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The path of destruction left residents dazed and emergency officials stunned that no one on the ground was even injured.

All those killed aboard the twin-engine plane worked at Tesla Motors Inc., and the plane was owned by a lead engineer at the Palo Alto electric car company, the firm said.

San Mateo County senior deputy coroner Michelle Rippy said that her office was unable to identify the victims Wednesday and that the coroner expects to determine their identities by Friday.

The plane took off from the Palo Alto Airport at 7:54 a.m., bound for Hawthorne Municipal Airport in Los Angeles County, the Federal Aviation Administration said. Fog limited visibility to only one-eighth of a mile, investigators said.

The 1976 Cessna 310 had flown about a mile northwest when it sliced through high-tension power lines connected to a 60-foot-tall tower. The plane disintegrated in midair, with pieces falling onto a home where a day care center operates, along with other houses and vehicles on Beech Street, said Harold Schapelhouman, chief of the Menlo Park Fire Protection District.

Palo Alto in dark
The impact toppled the top half of the tower and destroyed the electrical-transmission lines that run to neighboring Palo Alto. Power was knocked out for more than 10 hours to all the city's 28,000 customers, including schools and Stanford Hospital, which used a backup generator, city officials said.

The fog is one of many factors that investigators with the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will examine in their probe of the crash, said FAA spokesman Ian Gregor.

Pilots can rely on their instruments to tell them where they are when visibility is limited. The person at the controls of the Cessna filed a flight plan indicating he would be using instruments, said Josh Cawthra, an accident investigator with the federal safety board.

"Pilots make the decision on whether it's safe to take off or not," Gregor said. "We provide them with weather information, but we do not tell them whether they can take off."

Federal investigators plan to spend several days at the crash scene, Cawthra said. A final report on the cause of the crash will be issued in six to 12 months.

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Twin engine, retractable gear, IFR equipped.  

[r0tor]

wow... I hope Franz von Holzhausen wasn't one of those that are dead... that guy is/was a styling god

[S204STi]

Sorry to hear this.

[Raza]

They should have driven.

[r0tor]

They should have driven.

probably didn't have enough charge in the batteries...

[TBR]

Immediately made me think of Howard Hughes (a similar crash), but that was near LA, not SF.