A small, twin-engined Cessna crashed this morning in an East Palo Alto neighborhood, killing all three passengers on board. According to reports, the plane was owned by Doug Bourn, a senior electrical engineer for Tesla Motors, and all three occupants were high-ranking officials at the electric car company. Authorities have not yet named the deceased.
*UPDATE: Fox News reports Elon Musk was not on the plane
http://green.autoblog.com/2010/02/17/breaking-three-tesla-executives-die-in-palo-alto-plan-crash/
Just read several of the articles about this. None of them are releasing the names. However the airplane was registered to Doug Bourn.
The crash was at 7:50 AM .. I live about 5 miles away and at about that time I was poking my nose out the door looking at the dense fog. It's been real foggy in the morning the last couple days but then clearing off in the afternoon to wonderful spring-like weather.
Anyway... here's a few articles (mercurynews.com and sfgate.com are the local newspapers)
http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_14422231
Not releasing names .. plane registered to Doug Bourn..
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_14422868
The plane took off between 7-8 am.. and it was pretty darn foggy about that time.
Doug Bourn is stated to have a commercial pilots license and rated for flying in foggy weather.
They were a half mile off course the wrong way ("should have been over the bay")
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/17/BA631C3B10.DTL
"It couldn't have been pilot error. Doug doesn't make mistakes."
- David Herron, The Long Tail Pipe, davidherron.com, 7gen.com, What is Reiki
I talked with some friends last night who live closer to the crash site and had talked with people in the neighborhood.
They don't think it was pilot error. They describe witnesses saying the plane was in a descent - whereas it had just taken off from the airport and should have been climbing. Assumption is the plane took off, something happened (e.g. it was a twin engine plane, maybe one engine conked out), the something made the plane veer to the left where it hit the power lines. Normal flight path would be to climb over the bay rather than veer to the left over East Palo Alto. Speculation was the plane hit a bird or some such.
- David Herron, The Long Tail Pipe, davidherron.com, 7gen.com, What is Reiki
Does this put a crimp in the Tesla car company?
KB1UKU
They were senior engineers.. I'd expect that yes it would affect things a bit. But it's not like senior EE's who understand EV's can't be replaced. It's not like Tesla is a one man shop that folds when that one guy dies.
- David Herron, The Long Tail Pipe, davidherron.com, 7gen.com, What is Reiki
Chelsea Sexton posted a memorial ... http://evchels.wordpress.com/2010/02/18/a-few-of-our-own/
The San Jose Mercury News has an article analyzing likely cause of the crash that's along the lines of what I said above. http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_14441593?nclick_check=1
- David Herron, The Long Tail Pipe, davidherron.com, 7gen.com, What is Reiki
I feel sorry for what happened to the three executives. But then, what happened was an accident and we have to move on with our life. i know it's difficult but we have too. Just like in a recession, it's just a trial for us; trying if we are going to give up. But then we have to be strong in facing all the challenges in our life. Tesla
Motors? has had some troubles over the term of the recession, but finally took their company public and with great
returns. They opened their business today with the option to sell shares at about $13 per share, and investors have bought
much more stock than they had envisioned. This ought to keep them out of the need to take out any personal loans. Tesla
Motors specializes in electric cars, and the one they have had in the marketplace for a while now has been a bit pricy.
They have begun making a mass produced electric automobile they expect to sell for around $50,000.
The stock did quite well, unaffected by the plunging Dow, NASDAQ, and S&P. Maybe that's where the money was jumping to. I could have bought I think about 13,000 shares (Not sure ezactly what that car cost) and sold them a few hours later to make enough to buy the car.
Here I was expecting a month after month erosion to well below the IPO. But then, Tesla is actually DELIVERING their cars, right?
But it could still happen that way. If I had bought stock this morning, I'd have intended to sell before the close. I'm reading that analysts are saying to get out NOW.
But then, this sounds like the first day of. . .Google.
WHo dares, WINS!!!!