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.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the plane belonged to Doug Bourn, a senior electrical engineer for Tesla Motors. Although it's unclear whether or not he was on board at the time. As we reported first earlier, two other Tesla employees were in the plane at the time of the crash. Fox News is reporting that Tesla CEO Elon Musk was not onboard, and that he's calling this the "worst day in Telsa's history."
Tesla employees are reportedly "shaken" and a bus has been brought to the front of their facility to take them to, assumedly, a place where they can be consoled.
So what happened? According to SFGate:
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.
FAA records show that the plane is registered to Air Unique Inc. of Santa Clara. It was manufactured in 1976.
A twin-engine Cessna crashed into electric transmission lines shortly after take-off from a small airport, exploding on impact, killing all three people onboard and crashing into an East Palo Alto neighborhood, authorities said.
The crash has caused apower outage in the Palo Alto after the plane hit transmission wires. @vmwarecares also claims they've got a phone outage as well.
Daniel Morales, who told KTVU he had previously flown with the pilot, identified him as a high-ranking official at Tesla Motors. Authorities, or Tesla Motors, however, have not released the names of the victims.
Tesla Motors and planes have been inexorably linked over recent weeks with Tesla's CEO, Elon Musk, finding himself in hot water over reimbursements by Tesla for 12 trips he took in his own private jet.