Tesla: 3 employees killed in Calif. plane crash

Any word on what position they held in the company?
Were they the founders?
If so, I think its fishy.
Governmant /union takeover of GM.
Toyota under attack.
Tesla Motor tragedy/company setback.

Keep watch on Ford to see if they have a sudden run of bad luck.

reply to post by SEEWHATUDO

Bourn = Senior Electrical Engineer

So Bourn would be responsible for design of electrical components to be used in a harsh mobile vehicle environment? Would he also be responsible for doing an impact study on power delivery infrastructure? It wasn't too long ago that a hot day in California often ended up in a rolling blackout.

so what ?

i dont mean to be rude - or disresectful to the dead men

but so freaking what ?

the tesla automotive company , is to put it blunt - nothing special - its products use no unique or radical technology [ its batteries and motor are all off the shelf tech ] - yes its flagship car is the fastest production electric vehicle availiable - but so ? that does come at a price

one of the dead men - already owned the airplane - and another company [ unique air ] BEFORE joining tesla cars , so using his own plane t for a company junket - or just a plasure trip with his colegues is hardly extra ordinary .

Come on people, small planes crash all the time especially in bad weather. A cessna 310 is a relative inexpensive and OLD twin engined prop aircraft. It's not a "jet" or a plane one would normally associate with high end executive air travel, its more of a local charter service and pleasure plane , there is nothing strange about 3 guys who work at a particular company going for a cruise or on a small trip maybe piloted by another employee who was the owner (which hasn't been released yet)

Tesla Motors is hardly the cutting edge company some of you are making them out to be, yeah its a cool company but there cars are hardly that groundbreaking or cheap. Their roadster starts around 120,000 i believe. There are real doubts they will ever even release the sedan concept.





[edit on 17-2-2010 by drock905]

New details (been distracted by the Austin, Tx plane crash) (wonder if I and others are supposed to be distracted) (3 engineers in 2 days?!?! what a waste)

Okay we know who and what now...

The Mercury News has learned through sources close to the company that the deceased are: Doug Bourn, 56, of Santa Clara, a senior electrical engineer; Andrew Ingram, 31, of Palo Alto, an electrical engineer; and Brian M. Finn, 42, of East Palo Alto; a senior manager of interactive electronics

and how...

Bourn, who received his pilot's license in 1974, owned the Cessna 310 that took off from the Palo Alto Airport about 8 a.m. headed for Hawthorne Municipal Airport in Los Angeles County, where Tesla has a design studio. The plane clipped a PG&E power line, and fell to a residential neighborhood in East Palo Alto, skidding along Beech Street...

why is still kinda up in the air ...(ironic according to some on thi thread who screamed FOG!) MECHANICAL DIFFICULTIES SUSPECTED.

Federal authorities may not know for days what happened exactly during the fog-shrouded morning. The Bay Area's three major commercial airports had canceled or delayed flights because of the weather. But other pilots interviewed suspected the plane might have had mechanical difficulties.

Some more quotes that interest me...

What a way with words...technology to help humanity!

Roxsana Hadjizadeh, who used to work with Bourn at Tesla and who now works at Cisco Systems, remembered the 56-year-old as a man who used technology to help humanity. Bourn was a Stanford University graduate, who had also worked at Ideo in Palo Alto for ten years and ran his own computer hardware business called Lexington Engineering. According to some online profiles of him, Bourn loved riding motorcycles, scuba diving, skydiving and flying, including teaching others at Tesla how to fly in the evenings.

"Brian was one of the most passionate automotive engineers I have ever met," Schaaf wrote. "Cars, that was his world."

mercury news