Victims in deadly airplane crash close to Northern California airport have been longtime tech traders

An Israeli soccer-player-turned-venture capitalist and his spouse, a fellow tech investor, died Saturday in flippantly falling snow after the the couple’s single-engine airplane crash close to Truckee Tahoe Airport.

Liron Petrushka, 57, was making an attempt to land his single-engine Daher-Socata TBM700N turboprop Saturday night when, based on airport officers, he crashed after a missed method. He and Naomi Petrushka, 58, had three sons: David, Scott and Jordan.

The Nationwide Transportation Security Board investigated 20 fatal plane crashes in California final yr, all involving small plane. In a single Tehama County wreck, the pilot of an unregistered personal airplane was making an attempt an aerobatic rollover in Corning when the left wing ripped off.

On the day that the Petrushkas died, the Federal Aviation Administration reported two different personal airplane crashes within the U.S. the identical day: A twin-engine airplane crashed at a Florida airport, and a single-engine airplane crashed into Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island.

The Truckee Tahoe Airport straddles two California counties — Nevada and Placer — about 10 miles northwest of Incline Village, the place the couple lived. He’s been engaged on and investing in tech enterprises for the reason that Nineties.

Who have been the tech traders?

Naomi was the final supervisor of Petrushka Investments, the place Liron was the director. In accordance with Naomi’s LinkedIn, she taught as an adjunct professor on the College of Nevada, Reno.

Liron grew up in Israel. An article written by the startup communications advisor Donna Griffit mentioned the couple met when Naomi, an American, was volunteering in the Israeli Army. In Israel, Liron performed soccer for Hapoel Ramat Gan Givatayim, a membership workforce primarily based east of Tel Aviv.

All through his investing profession, Liron centered on software program subscription companies, marketplaces and monetary tech.

After a disastrous $700,000 funding in Pets.com — one of many many corporations that vaporized within the dot-com crash of 2000 — he mentioned he grew to become a way more hands-on investor.

He advised Griffit, “I discovered that if I wished to speculate I must be extra engaged and concerned with the founders and perceive what’s occurring with the enterprise.”

Liron was an early investor in LendingClub, a peer-to-peer lending platform that established itself as a pioneer in unsecured loans. He additionally advised Griffit that he handed on the enterprise capital spherical for LinkedIn. “I simply don’t get social stuff,” he mentioned. “Comfortable that others made cash, one can’t be grasping.”

Ilana Golan, at the moment the CEO of the chief profession improvement enterprise Leap Academy, wrote on Facebook, “Liron was an investor in my very first startup and probably the most humble, good and type individuals I met. He didn’t let his unbelievable success change the way in which he treats others. It was inspiring to look at. I wished ‘some day’ to inform him about his influence on me.”

Sharon Savariego wrote that Liron had invested in her company, too: “He was at all times supportive, giving suggestions in probably the most sincere and direct method. You possibly can at all times belief Liron to inform you the reality, even when it was harsh — and nonetheless to offer you a hand to assist.” His coronary heart, she mentioned, “was at all times in Israel.”

The Petrushkas have been additionally closely concerned with UpWest, a Silicon Valley seed fund focused on Israeli founders breaking into the U.S. tech market. In a written assertion, the corporate’s leaders described the couple as “a major drive within the constructing and success of UpWest from its inception.”