Tragedy struck electric car company Tesla today when three of its employees died in a plane crash.

The three took off in a Cessna 310 from Palo Alto Airport at 7:55am in thick fog and within minutes hit power lines over a residential neighborhood. All were killed but there were no other injuries, something the Menlo Park Fire Protection Chief  called "miraculous."

"We are withholding their identities as we work with the relevant authorities to notify the families," Elon Musk, Tesla's chief executive said in a statement.

The crash started house fires and knocked out a large chunk of the power network in Menlo Park and Mountain View, leaving many companies, including Facebook, powerless. At time of posting power is still out as engineers try to repair the damage.

The plane was registered to Doug Bourn, 57, a senior electrical engineer at Tesla, although it's not known if he was on board.

In a statement the city authorities said the Emergency Operations Center has been activated and the power should be back up by about 5.30pm, but no promises.

17 Feb 2010