3 February 2012
Last updated at 21:30
Appleton was a professional stunt plane pilot as well as a former motocross racer
Steve Appleton, the chief executive and chairman of Micron, has died in a plane crash near the airport at Boise, Idaho.
Appleton, 51, a professional stunt plane pilot, was flying a small, experimental fixed-wing plane.
Micron, a memory-chip maker founded in 1978, halted its stock trading.
“Steve’s passion and energy left an indelible mark on Micron, the Idaho community and the technology industry at large,” the company’s board said in a statement.
Emergency services in south-western Idaho received reports of a small plane on fire before it landed at around 09:00 local time.
In 2004, Appleton sustained serious injuries after his stunt plane crashed in the desert east of Boise.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is in the middle of a safety study on amateur-built planes like the one Appleton was flying. His plane was a Lancair.
In 2010, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a safety advisory on the Lancair because the plane often stalled at slow speeds near the ground.
More than half of the 222 accidents studied by the NTSB involved planes that were bought used rather than having been built by the current owner.
Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-us-canada-16882772
