A brand new Gulfstream G550 that ran off the end of Runway 29 at Appleton, Wisconsin’s Outagamie Airport reportedly belonged to Microsoft co-founder and Portland Trailblazers owner Paul Allen. No one was hurt in the accident. Gulfstream operates a large aircraft completion facility at Appleton, though there was no word on the cause (the NTSB is looking into it), what the airplane was doing on that ill-fated flight or what the prognosis is for the $50+million jet. Strangely enough, it wasn’t the first aviation mishap for one of Allen’s aircraft in the past few weeks. A Eurocopter EC145 light twin helicopter crashed while taking off from Allen’s 414-foot-long yacht Octopus off the coast of Argentina. One report claimed that after hitting an antenna on the vessel, the helicopter made a successful emergency landing, setting down in the frigid water on popup floats only to be unintentionally submerged while being retrieved on a tow line. Here’s a link to a YouTube photo slideshow of the helicopter being hoisted up onto shore.
Bad Month for Paul Allen
