Written by Mitchell Goodbar, Dailymail.Com
22:20 March 31, 2024, Updated 22:20 March 31, 2024
- Liron and Naomi Petrushka's plane crashed in Northern California on Saturday.
- The couple founded CommerceBid, which they sold in 1999 for $200 million.
- The Israeli couple moved to California and their four children survived.
An Israeli couple who achieved fame and success as investors died Saturday night in a plane crash in northern California.
Liron and Naomi Petrushka were about to land at Truckee Tahoe Airport at 6:38 p.m. when their plane crashed. The couple tragically died in an accident.
The plane departed Centennial Airport in Denver, Colorado, on Saturday around 4:20 p.m., heading west. The cause of the crash is still unknown.
Truckee Tahoe Airport officials said in a Facebook post that the plane was a “single-engine TBM aircraft N960LP.”
Before entering the world of technology, Liron was a soccer player in Israel.
They pointed out that while two people were known to have died, it was not yet clear “how many people were on board.”
According to KCRA-TV, conditions at the time of the accident were moderately snowy and visibility was about 800 meters.
The Petrushkas left behind four children and had lived in California for the past few years. They had established themselves as insightful technology investors and had a string of successes.
In 1999, the couple sold the company they founded, CommerceBid, for more than $200 million. After the acquisition, Petrushka remained with the company and assisted the company that acquired CommerceBid.
After CommerceBid, they invested in Check, which was sold to American financial giant Intuit in 2014 for about $360 million.
According to Ctech, the Petrushkas are also investors in UpWest, a venture capital firm that invests in Israeli-led startups based in both Israel and the United States.
The plane carrying the Petrushkas crashed in Truckee, near the Nevada border.
After the accident, the Truckee Police Department posted on its Facebook page:
“Truckee Police and Fire personnel are currently on scene of a plane crash near Glenshire Drive and Olympic Boulevard. There is no threat to structures and no road closures at this time.”
They warned nearby residents that “there will be a heavy presence of emergency responders in this area for an extended period of time.”
Truckee-Tahoe Airport said in a statement that “Truckee Police Department, Truckee Fire Department, Nevada County Sheriff's Office, Nevada County Coroner's Office and Truckee-Tahoe Airport personnel were on scene” following the plane crash.
He also said the National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration would investigate the situation.
Before starting his illustrious career as a high-tech investor, Liron Petrushka started playing soccer for the Israeli team Hapoel Ramat Gan Givataim.
In a statement to the Times of Israel, the football club's president said: “The club bows its head at the death of Liron Petrushka and his wife.”
