BREAKING: Three Tesla employees die in Palo Alto plane crash *UPDATE

[FreeJG]

BREAKING: Three Tesla employees die in Palo Alto plane crash *UPDATE
by Jeremy Korzeniewski (RSS feed) on Feb 17th 2010 at 2:01PM



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.

" hit a power line. Then it exploded... then half hit the next door neighbor's house and the other half hit across the street. We were right in the road," said neighborhood resident Heather Starnes. No injuries were reported on the ground, though a number of homes were damaged, including one currently being used as a daycare facility.

The National Weather Service had issued a dense fog advisory for the Bay Area earlier in the morning that was in effect until 10 a.m. A spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration said the "decision would have been up to the pilot." We'll update with an official comment from Tesla when we hear back.

*UPDATE: Fox News reports Elon Musk was not on the plane (via Twitter).

*UPDATE: Local news video from Mercury News posted after the jump.

*UPDATE: Power outages reported in Palo Alto and nearby areas, affecting residences and businesses, including Facebook offices.

*UPDATE: We've received a comment from Tesla CEO Elon Musk:

Three Tesla employees were on board a plane that crashed in East Palo Alto early this morning. We are withholding their identities as we work with the relevant authorities to notify the families. Our thoughts and prayers are with them. Tesla is a small, tightly-knit company, and this is a tragic day for us.

[yodoobo]

1. Probably killed by big auto or big oil

As they were a threat to both.

[nemo137]

6. First fucking post.

All the things that happen in this world, all the thousands of things that effect any one event, and the automatic assumption is that some all-powerful cabal did it. Jesus Christ.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

7. First they framed Delorean, and I said nothing...

because I didn't want to mess with the 1980s time stream.

[LeftyMom]

8. Yeah, because nobody every crashes a small plane in a plain old accident.

Nope, it's always a fucking conspiracy.

[yodoobo]

10. and people who threaten the power establishment are never harmed or threatened

It is simple something that has never happened in the history of mankind.

Isn't that right Dr King?

[nemo137]

11. No, but (and this is a big but)

something happening once does not mean it happens every time. Something happening several times does not happen every time. And that's not getting into Occam's razor, which tends to argue against conspiracies, as they are comparatively "heavy."

[cherokeeprogressive]

14. Here's a photo of the high tension power line tower he hit.

I suppose TPTB, who kill everyone that threatens them must have moved it into his way in the fog sometime after he took off.

[yodoobo]

15. So they were too low.

Could be pilot error.

Or a rigged altimeter.

[WI_DEM]

17. So when conservative businessmen with oil connections die in small plane crashes

it must be a conspiracy as well, right?

[yodoobo]

22. Maybe. Maybe not

Is there a specific accident and person that you are wondering about?

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

18. Ask the Diesel family when Rudolph Diesel mysteriously died when on a ship in the English Channel.

That was 1913. He was designing his engines to use bio oil. This was during the huge petroleum boom.

[bullwinkle428]

19. But Diesel engines have ALWAYS been capable of running on

vegetable oil! Sure, some little extra things need to done if the engine is going to be run in cold weather so the fuel doesn't gel, but the capability has always been there.

People have been doing the conversions for years, on old VWs and Mercedes so they can run their cars on used cooking oil from restaurants!

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

21. But after his death, they were never MARKETED that way. Why not?

[SidDithers]

20. Good example. Big Oil sure managed to nip that one in the bud...

and that's why today, the diesel engine is just a nostalgic memory.

Sid

[WI_DEM]

16. Well that didn't take long. Apparently all deaths by small plane are due to conspiracy theories.

[hlthe2b]

2. I feel badly for the company.... they seem to be followed by

bad breaks, to put it mildly. I hope they can push beyond this tragedy.

[midnight]

3. k&R

[FarCenter]

4. Electric stuff can be a killer -- very dangerous

" hit a power line. Then it exploded...

[Retrograde]

5. Not just a power line

it's not clear to me at least - I'm in Palo Alto and we were without power until recently - exactly what happened, but at least one of the towers that holds the high-voltage lines that supply the entire city grid was down. I don't know it the plane hit the tower, or if it struck one of the wires and brought the tower down, or what. It wasn't just a little single street line.

[upi402]

9. I wonder if he pushed the high tension line into the tower

if it could have toppled the tower? By "down" do you mean on the ground? Or de-energized lines that the tower supports?

[Retrograde]

12. the tower holds the lines

I'm not an engineer, so I don't know how to describe exactly what it was that was down. It's essentially the high-tension wires that supply the city's grid, a lot more than the measly little wire that runs from the utility pole to my house which they swear are going to be underground one of these days. The accident caused a lot of inconvenience in the city: Stanford Hospital canceled non-essential surgeries to spare their generators, businesses either closed or operated on a cash-only basis, companies who didn't have generators closed for the day - the accident happened just before 8 and we got power back at 6.

I haven't seen any local coverage yet: I briefly considered biking down to the Bay but common sense took over. There are a series of towers holding the wires along the Bay, and you used to be able to walk out on catwalks between them until the walks rotted - they've been there a long time. They're placed so if a pilots follow normal procedures taking off from the Palo Alto airport: they're supposed to turn right and go over the Bay. According to what I've heard, the pilot of this plane turned left instead, heading into the paths of the wires and over a residential area. The heavy fog didn't help: at about that time visibility in my area, about 2 miles away, was poor - I could just about see across the street.

It will take several months to get all this sorted out.

[upi402]

13. Thanks. I wondered if the steel tower was on the ground

It sounds like it may be a crumbling infrastructure thing too. Towers should withstand a light plane hitting them. Stanford Hospital has critical systems that need a reliable power grid, not better UPS.

One in my area held a plane on one of its wires until they got to the plane. The wire didn't even come off.