Some people can’t resist tempting fate. And Steve Appleton, CEO of memory chip maker Micron Technology Inc., was one of them.
Appleton, a trained stunt pilot who loved aviation, in July 2004 survived the crash of a stunt plane he was flying. Appleton back then didn’t reveal how bad his injuries were, underplaying their seriousness. In fact, he had suffered head injuries, broken bones and a punctured lung in that accident.
But that crash didn’t daunt Appleton, a self-proclaimed risk taker who built Micron into an $8.8 billion company. On Friday, Appleton got in the cockpit of an experimental plane, a Lancair IVP, in Boise, Idaho.
On Appleton’s second takeoff attempt, the aircraft stalled and crashed, bursting into flames. Appleton’s body was thrown from the wreckage, according to the Associated Press. He was 51, and leaves behind a wife and four chidren.
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/SciTech/20120204/micron-appleton-CEO-dead-20120204/
The plane that Appleton was flying, according to a 2009 notice from the Federal Aviation Adminstration, has had a disproportionate number of fatal accidents, according to The San Francisco Chronicle. It is considered an “amateur-built experimental aircraft.”
And apparently as such, the Lancair doesn’t have to fulfill the same safety stardards as other planes. Quite frankly, I had never known that there were such as thing as “amateur-built planes” that are made from kits.
The model Lancair that Appleton was flying, the IVP, could reach speeds of up to 330 mph at 24,000, The Chronicle reported.
Appleton loved to boast about his daredevil ways, and how he would never abandon them. Since ancient times hubris has been the downfall of many a man. It’s a shame that Appleton, like Icarus, ignored the warnings of others and also fell from the sky to his death.