3 dead in small-plane crash in East Palo Alto (Tesla Motors Executives)

[onehandle]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

The plane crashed on the 1200 block of Beech Street near Pulgas Avenue about 7:55 a.m., said Lt. Ray Lunny of the San Mateo County Sheriff's Department. A house on the street was damaged and the plane destroyed three cars, Lunny said, but there were no reports of injuries on the ground.

Ian Gregor, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said the plane was a twin-engine Cessna 310 that had taken off from Palo Alto Airport, about a mile to the southwest, and was bound for Hawthorne Municipal Airport in Los Angeles County.

The plane was owned by Doug Bourn, a senior electrical engineer for Tesla Motors, the electric-car company said. It was not known whether Bourn was onboard.

The cause of the crash was not known, but there were reports that the plane hit an electrical tower or wires on takeoff. There was also thick fog where the plane crashed.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/17/BA391C32O5.DTL

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3 Tesla Execs Dead In Palo Alto Plane Crash

A twin-engine Cessna piloted by a "high-ranking official at Tesla" crashed into an East Palo Alto neighborhood today killing the pilot and two others on board. A Tesla spokesperson has confirmed three employees were involved in the crash.

http://jalopnik.com/5473942/3-tesla-execs-dead-in-palo-alto-plane-crash

[hlthe2b]

1. Damn... this company just can't catch a break, it seems

[zonkers]

20. Bad news. Cool car. I had no idea they they had problems before this.

I thought their cars were all presold and they were working on a new super nifty sports car.

[hlthe2b]

26. I think they've had to struggle financially...

The odds, are after all, against them. I hope they succeed.

[HughBeaumont]

2. R.I.P.

:cry:

And let's unfortunately just get this out of the way right now . . . . :popcorn:

[Sebastian Doyle]

3. For the moment, I'll suppress any discussion of tinfoil hat possiblities here

...and just say that I hope Tesla Motors can survive this. We need more companies like them. :(

[WriteDown]

4. Killed by the gov't to bolster GM.

Sorry, had to throw it out there. :)

[Carni]

14. No GM would just do it directly!

Kidding (sort of!)

[WhiteTara]

15. not kidding n/t

[jakefrep]

31. Is this conspiarcy theory bullshit necessary?

[FirstLight]

5. Unfortunately, that's the first thing that came to MY mind, too

very weird inded...didn't they *just* go public, too?

WTF?

[wtmusic]

6. +1 nt

[rcrush]

7. Was anyone from JP Morgan involved?

[Snazzy]

32. actually yes

On 29 January 2010, Tesla Motors filed Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission,<33> as a preliminary prospectus indicating its intention to file an initial public offering underwritten by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, J. P. Morgan and Deutsche Bank Securities.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Motors

[Carni]

13. I hear you!

That's all I am going to say but my tin foil hat seems to be humming in my closet, as I type!

[Cleita]

8. Huh, another small plane crash with a progressive company

involved this time instead of a politician. :tinfoilhat:

[SteveM]

9. Very sad. I hope this cutting-edge company can weather the tragedy.

[musette_sf]

10. I'm up for a good CT when warranted

but in this case I can attest to the heavy fog in the area. Today was some of the heaviest fog I've seen in awhile. Probably should have delayed the flight.

[tridim]

11. "Tucker" part deux.

Or just an accident.

[farmout rightarm]

12. Not to make light of this, it's terrible and I have a Cessna 310 myself but crashing near Beech

street...is just one of those weird coincidences I suppose. So sorry to hear this.

[sam sarrha]

21. how hard is it to program the auto pilot th straight down and override the off switch, and activate

the AP with a cell phone ringer..??

[penndragon69]

16. Who's killing the electric cars?

We'll have to wait and see when all the details
become public.

[WhiteTara]

17. My condolences to their families and friends

their deaths are a great loss to a better future.

[sam sarrha]

18. Bu$h's Computer guy that is said to have fixed the elections also crashed & died, after being warned

not to fly cause people were after him last week
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Mike_Connell

[Ilsa]

19. I never held much stock in the existance of the Devil until I read about KKKarl Rove. nt

[REP]

22. I live in this area, and the fog has been really bad until 11 am or later lately

Hate to rain on the tinfoil, but the fog has been unusually heavy here, even for the bay area.

[WriteDown]

23. Yes, but the fog is made by the weather control machine....

:)

[REP]

24. Damn! forgot about that!

There's a reason THEY don't want me to see the building across from mine!!

[Jimbo S]

25. High-ranking officials should never fly together

A lot of companies have this policy, in case something like this occurs it won't kill the company.

[hayu_lol]

27. How close to the airport were the wires/towers or whatever...

they appeared to hit? Were the wires/towers obscured by fog?

[Retrograde]

30. not very close, if they follow standard procedures

the airport is on a spit of land sticking out into the Bay. The towers are further inland, and if the pilot stuck to normal flight paths he would have turned in the opposite direction and missed them completely.

[annm4peace]

28. Is this the same plane that Wellstone and others went down in?

I wouldn't be surprised if this wasn't an accident.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Vbf49kzWFw&search=wellstone

[Retrograde]

29. We got power back at about 6 PM today

Amazing how much we depend on electricity! I walked to downtown Palo Alto this afternoon, and many of the smaller businesses were closed, or doing "cash only" transactions. A few companies had generators. Stanford Hospital cancelled all elective surgeries for the day.

I live about 2 miles inland from the airport, and visibility here this morning was very limited: I could see across the street, but not much farther. What I've been able to gather from the local coverage is that the plane took off, then turned west towards the inhabited area rather than east towards the Bay, clipping a major transmission tower and breaking up and skidding down a residential street.

I did get a lot of yard work done today, though.