Tragedy Strikes Tesla in Palo Alto Plane Crash

By Nick Mokey Published February 17, 2010

Credit: Michael Macor / The Chronicle — Credit: Michael Macor / The Chronicle Image used with permission by copyright holder

The small world of high-performance electric cars got a little smaller on Wednesday. Three Tesla employees in the same small aircraft died when the small plane they were in clipped power lines just shortly after takeoff and crashed into a residential neighborhood.

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According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the plane was owned by Tesla engineer Doug Bourn, but authorities haven’t yet released the names of any of the passengers, or even confirmed whether Bourn was onboard. According to Jalopnik, all three passengers were Tesla employees, but Tesla CEO Elon Musk was not among them.

After taking off at 7:55 a.m. Wednesday morning in a heavy fog, the plane apparently collided with power wires strung from a 100-foot-tall tower, broke apart, and tumbled to the ground below in pieces. The debris damaged two homes, a home daycare center, and a pickup truck, but no one on the ground was injured.

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