Three Tesla employees killed in Palo Alto plane crash
A Cessna 310 crash this morning in a residential area of Palo Alto, California claimed the lives of three employees of Tesla Motors.
The plane was reportedly piloted by a “high ranking executive” at the company, and is said to have flown into power lines 377 feet high, exploding and breaking apart on impact. No injuries nor fatalities were reported on the ground. The plane crashed near a home-based daycare center in which as many as twenty children are sometimes present.
Heather Starnes , who lives in the neighborhood, was leaving her home to take her daughter to school when she saw the crash.
“We heard something and it blew up in the air,” she told KTVU. “There was this big explosion. Part of it hit my neighbor’s house who has a daycare and part of it hit my neighbor’s other house. They are burning.”
Starnes said fortunately there were no children at the daycare at the time of the crash.
“Praise God there were no kids in the daycare, it hit where they would have been in the daycare,” she said.
Starnes said the plane slammed into a power line.
The area was blanketed in a dense fog this morning, with an advisory issued until 10 a.m. local time. A spokesperson for the FAA says the decision to fly in the conditions would have been a matter of the pilot’s discretion. CEO Elon Musk called today is the “worst day in Tesla’s history.” Identities of the victims have not yet been released.
