Friends and colleagues of three Tesla Motors employees who died Wednesday during a plane crash in East Palo Alto are remembering the trio today as men who used technology to make the world a better place.
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.
The National Transportation Safety Board should have some results in five days as to what caused the Cessna to clip a PG&E power line and crash on Beech Street in East Palo Alto, said aviation accident inspector Joshua Cawthra. What will help, he added, is East Palo Alto’s “shot spotter” system, the city’s high-tech sensors that detect gun shots. The noises from the plane’s engine were detected on the system, and could help explain why the plane crashed moments after taking off in heavy fog for a trip to Southern California.
Cawthra did state today, however, that Bourn made “zero distress calls” from the air, and had said his last words to radio control from the ground.
Federal Aviation Administration records show Bourn had his license since 1974, and had never been involved in any prior accidents or cited for any violations.
“I’m imagining him like Sully,” said Bourn’s longtime neighbor, Karen Davis referring to Capt. Chesley Sullenberger, the Danville pilot who heroically landed an airliner in distress on the Hudson River. “I’m sure he would have tried to make sure his plane would avoid hitting people on the ground. He was not a reckless person.”
Added Ellen Humphrey of Sacramento, who was married to Bourn for three years after having met him at a company called Zilog: “When we would go flying, I remember him taking great measures to inspect the aircraft, to figure out and file his flight plan, to make sure everything was properly planned out, logged, and communicated. I know that Doug wouldn’t fly if he thought it was dangerous. Doug was a very skilled pilot — a very safe pilot. For him to cut corners to do something unsafe would be absolutely absurd.”
Not only did Bourn love flying. But he loved technology and used it for good, friends said. They recounted times when Bourn — a Stanford University graduate who had worked at IDEO a Palo Alto-based design consultant firm — happily tinkered with neighbors to fix their computers, volunteered with students at a robotics club at Castilleja Middle School in Palo Alto or bought first-rate equipment at Tesla when he volunteered for the company’s emergency response team.
“Doug was a fine man, a superb engineer, an inspiration to those who knew him, and a big part of the success of Tesla Motors,” former Tesla co-founder Martin Eberhard wrote in an e-mail. “I remember when Doug came to me to ask if he could use a conference room at Tesla to teach flight school to prospective pilots. Of course, I said yes, and I mentioned that I was maybe halfway through flying lessons when the tragedy of 9/11 struck, shutting down the local airports and ending my flying lessons. Doug, with his characteristic smile, tried hard to convince me to join his class and finish the program. Flying was one of his great joys and he wanted to share that joy with his friends.”
Silicon Valley venture capitalist Vish Mishra’s son, Rohit, e-mailed his father from Singapore on Wednesday night to say he had known Bourn’s two passengers.
Rohit Mishra had worked with Finn at Volkswagen in Palo Alto, and had graduated Harvey Mudd College in Claremont with Ingram.
“It’s such a small world,” Vish Mishra said. “My son really liked both of them very much.”
Klaus Schaaf, a friend of Finn’s, e-mailed Good Morning Silicon Valley writer John Murrell a sad note about losing a friend. The plane crashed about two blocks from Finn’s home in East Palo Alto.
“Brian was one of the most passionate automotive engineers I have ever met,” Schaaf wrote. “Cars, that was his world.”
The two met in Madison, Wis., where Finn was working on something called “active noise cancellation for cars.” He had developed a digital voice enhancement system to make it easier for drivers and passengers to speak in bigger vehicles, like vans, Schaaf wrote. Finn loved to mentor young engineers, including Schaaf’s son at San Jose State University, and ecology was a major concern for him, Schaaf wrote.
Finn’s LinkedIn profile shows that before Tesla, he had worked in the Volkswagen Electronics Research Lab and had graduated from Northern Illinois University with a master’s in electrical engineering and a bachelor’s in physics.
Like Bourn, Finn also loved hiking and being in the outdoors. His neighbor, Alicia Smith, recalled him bicycling with his young daughter in the neighborhood. “He was a good man, a hardworking man,” she said.
Contact Lisa Fernandez at 408-920-5002.
A similar .  
A  plane hit an  in Northern California shortly after taking off Wednesday. All three of the plane's passengers were killed. The plane's wing struck a house which caught fire, along with parked cars. No injuries on the ground were reported.

The crash occurred at 7:55 am local time (15:55 UTC).  The  said that the plane was originating from  and was en route to  in , California.

The persons killed were employees of Tesla Motors, later identified as Doug Bourn, Andrew Ingram, and Brian Finn, all involved with electronics at the company. Tesla's CEO, Elon Musk, released a statement saying, in part, "Tesla is a small, tightly-knit company, and this is a tragic day for us."

The plane was registered to Air Unique Incorporated, in , California, which is owned by another Tesla employee Doug Bourn.