Three employees from US electric carmaker Tesla died Wednesday when their small plane crashed in a residential area in East Palo Alto, south of San Francisco, officials said. "Tesla is a small, tightly-knit company, and this is a tragic day for us," Tesla chief executive Elon Musk said in a statement. He declined to release the victims' identities until their families were notified. "Our thoughts and prayers are with them," Musk added. The aircraft, a twin engine Cessna 310 carrying three people, crashed around 8:00 am (1600 GMT) after hitting an electricity pole, causing significant power outages, East Palo Alto police said. The crash damaged several homes and destroyed vehicles some 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of San Francisco, although no injuries were reported on the ground. The plane had just taken off from Palo Alto, a region of Silicon Valley where Tesla is based, along with other high-tech California companies. In late January, the company, which calls itself "the world's only automaker selling highway-capable electric cars," announced it had filed a registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed initial public offering of its common stock. The firm is led by South Africa-born Musk, 38, who made a fortune after co-founding and selling online payment company PayPal to eBay. He also founded space launch vehicle manufacturer Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX). The Tesla Roadster, a high-performance sports car, costs more than 100,000 dollars and can go nearly 250 miles (400 kilometers) on a single charge. In 2012 the firm aims to debut its "Model S," a five-passenger sedan powered by lithium-ion battery packs capable of between 160 and 300 miles per charge.
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