Three employees of electric-car maker Tesla Motors Inc. died Wednesday when their small plane crashed in a residential neighborhood in California’s Silicon Valley, causing a major power outage in the city of Palo Alto but injuring no one on the ground.
Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk wasn’t on board the plane. In a statement released by the company, Mr. Musk confirmed the deaths and said Tesla is withholding the names of the three as they contact their families. “Tesla is a small, tightly-knit company, and this is a tragic day for us,” Mr. Musk said.
The twin-engine Cessna 310 that crashed in the residential neighborhood of East Palo Alto, about 30 miles southeast of San Francisco, is registered with a company that is owned by Tesla engineer Doug Bourn. Neither Tesla nor authorities would confirm whether Mr. Bourn was on the plane.
Has to be quite an impact on a company of only 500 employees. 