This is an odd one......
Original report.......follow up below
Telecom pioneer, son die in plane crash
CEO WAS PILOTING THE CRAFT IN MAINE
By Dana Hull
Mercury News
Article Launched: 02/03/2008 01:39:31 AM PST
A Bay Area telecommunications pioneer and her 10-year-old son were killed
Friday night after their private jet crashed in the woods as they left
Augusta, Maine.
Jeanette Symons, to whom the plane was registered, was believed to be
piloting the craft with her 10-year-old son as the passenger, according to
Maine Public Safety Department spokesman Stephen McCausland.
Symons, 45, co-founded and was chief executive officer of Industrious Kid,
an Oakland-based company that creates online products for children with
age-appropriate content. She regularly commuted by plane between her home in
Steamboat Springs, Colo., and the Bay Area.
"She's been flying for over 20 years. She's a top-notch pilot," said Tim
Donovan, the company's vice president of marketing. Donovan said Symons' son
had been attending a weeklong ski camp.
Symons leaves a 7-year-old daughter and is survived by her parents and two
brothers, Donovan said.
Before founding Industrious Kid, Symons co-founded Zhone Technologies and
worked at Ascend Communications. In 2001, she was listed as one of the
wealthiest people in the country under the age of 40. At the time, she was
39.
Symons is also the creator of the Web site imbee.com, which she created to
help children network with friends online while avoiding some of the dangers
of the Internet.
After the plane took off at 5:45 p.m., bound for Lincoln, Neb., an air
traffic controller in Portland was talking to the pilot by radio and
tracking the aircraft on radar, Federal Aviation Administration officials
said.
When the plane was at about 3,000 feet, the pilot declared an emergency,
saying there was a problem with the plane's attitude indicator. The
controller attempted to guide the pilot back to the Augusta airport but lost
radio contact and saw the plane descend rapidly on radar.
Police said a debris field about 300 yards long was found at the scene of
the wreck.
John Guimond, manager of the Augusta State Airport, said the plane was a
Cessna Citation and that it crashed roughly 10 miles from the airport.
McCausland said the Maine Department of Public Safety was first notified
about the downed aircraft when the FAA contacted them.
Representatives from the FAA were expected to head to West Gardiner to begin
an investigation.
The airport is owned by the state of Maine but managed and operated by the
city of Augusta.
Freezing rain was falling in Augusta at the time of the crash, according to
the National Weather Service.
Follow up report........
Pilot in deadly crash did not de-ice plane
By Tom McGhee
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 02/04/2008 01:39:49 AM MST
Jeanette Symons, 45, was an Internet entrepreneur who moved to Steamboat
Springs from San Francisco in 2006.
An Internet entrepreneur from Steamboat Springs didn't have the ice removed
from her plane before she left on the fatal flight that killed her and her
10-year-old son, airport officials said.
Jeanette Symons, 45, a telecommunications pioneer and co-founder of
Industrious Kid, which creates online products for children, was piloting
her Cessna Citation jet when it crashed Friday after takeoff from Augusta
State Airport in Maine.
Symons was returning to Steamboat after spending a week at a ski camp on
Sugar Loaf Mountain with her son.
Symons took off during a storm that coated the ground, vehicles and trees
with a granular layer of ice, said William Perry, owner of Maine Instrument
Flight, which operates facilities at the airport.
"It was a spooky night; it was not easy to navigate," he said Sunday.
With the storm looming Friday morning, Symons called the airport and asked
that her plane be parked in the hangar, Perry said.
The company put the plane in the hangar but had to remove it later to
shelter a regional jet owned by Colgen, the airline that serves the airport.
About 5:30 p.m., Symons drove her rental car to the plane, stowed her gear
and looked over the aircraft, Perry said.
"Our guys were assuming she was going to have to be de-iced. She came in and
said, 'I'm all set.' Our guy said, 'Are you sure?" and she said, 'No, I'm
all set,'" Perry said. "She may have looked the plane over and said there's
not much ice. All I can tell you is there was ice all over everything."
Symons, who didn't appear to be inebriated or otherwise incapacitated, then
did something that further surprised Perry's employees.
Instead of heading west on a taxiway to the runway, she cut across a field
and drove the plane through a ditch, blasting her engines to get through the
depression, said Perry, who heard the story from his workers.
She then followed a meandering route to the runway.
"She got almost to the runway, and our guys turned the field lights on. She
should have done that herself at that point. I think she just got confused;
it was a strange airport, and she was trying to feel her way around," Perry
said.
A layer of ice can bring an aircraft down, said Peter Knudson, a spokesman
for the National Transportation Safety Board. "It reduces the lift, and it
can lead to a stall."
The NTSB is investigating the accident, but it could be a year before
results are known.
Symons moved from San Francisco to Steamboat Springs about 18 months ago.
The San Francisco Chronicle said the move was an effort to give her two
children recreational opportunities not available in the city. She regularly
commuted to the Bay Area by plane.
Symons is survived by her 7-year-old daughter, Jennie.