Thursday, January 29, 2009

Startup Advisor, Former VC Probable Plane Crash Victim

According to a report from the Los Angeles times, Martin Schaedel, an advisor to a number of local startups and former VC, was the second victim in a plane crash in Santa Monica Wednesday. Confirmed dead was Paulo Emanuele, general manager of the website www.airliners.net. The men crashed in a two-seat, Marchetti SF-260, according to reports. No official word on Schaedel's identity was given, however, the LA Times quotes GumGum's Ophir Tanz as having confirmed the identification with NTSB investigators (Tanz confirmed the details with us Thursday evening). Schaedel was also an avid photographer, and had provided a number of photos to socalTECH of local high tech entrepreneurs in our articles, including our interviews of Brian Biniak, Mike Jones, Hamet Watt, and Rafat Ali.

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