Israeli soccer player turned tech entrepreneur, wife killed in Truckee plane crash during storm

Two people killed Saturday evening when their plane crashed after a missed approach at a snowy Truckee Tahoe Airport have been identified as a former Israeli professional soccer player turned tech entrepreneur and his wife.

While the identities of the victims were expected to be announced by the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office, news reports identified the couple as Liron Petrushka, 57, and his wife, Naomi, 58.

The single-engine Daher-Socata TBM700N turboprop plane went down at 6:38 p.m. near Glenshire Drive and Olympic Boulevard after trying to land on Runway 20, according to officials at the airport. The flight path of the plane, which originated at Centennial Airport near Denver, indicates that the aircraft was attempting a “go-around” for its missed approach on the shorter of Truckee’s two runways. Data from FlightAware shows the plane climbing several hundred feet and starting to turn when it lost altitude.

Radio calls archived by LiveATC.net and reviewed by The Sacramento Bee showed that the Truckee tower control was not operational at the time of the crash and that Petrushka had been at the controls when he radioed his intentions over a common frequency to land on Runway 20.

Petrushka had spent several minutes talking about the weather with radar controllers in Oakland, who control the airspace above Truckee. At one point, he had asked to change his approach to Truckee as he and the controller tried to navigate the weather in the area.

“Honestly, my weather radar is not that great at that altitude,” the controller is heard telling Petrushka. “I won’t be able to tell whether it’s 20,000 (feet) or 13,000, I can’t tell ... I can get you closer to the weather, you can take a look at it, but you’ll know better than me.”

The last radio transmission announced the plane was 5 miles from the runway followed by several mic keys made by the pilot to turn on the runway’s automated lighting system. Oakland controllers radioed “zero lima papa,” shorthand for its tail number N960LP, above five minutes after the crash but no response was given in the audio recorded by LiveATC.

The crash site is about 3,000 feet north of the airport across the Truckee River and close to the railroad tracks, but law enforcement officials said no homes were damaged. Runway 2/20 is the shorter of Truckee’s two runways at 4,650 feet; Runway 11/29 is 7,000 feet.

Calls to several Truckee airport officials Sunday were routed to a general mailbox and not answered.

Two people on board were killed, officials said. The high-performance plane, which was manufactured in 2022, based in Truckee and owned by Incline Village, Nevada-based AvRam Enterprises, was destroyed. AvRam is registered to Liron Petrushka, according to state business filings dating back to 2017.

Petrushka’s former team, Hapoel Ramat Gan Givatayim, identified the victims in a statement.

“The club bows its head for the death of Liron Petrushka and his wife,” said the team’s chairman, Einav Hazenvald. “Liron grew up in the club from the age of 10 and passed through all the teams in the club, including the adults’ team. He played with me in the youth team, where we won the national championship, as well as in the adult team.”

Hapoel Football Club plays in Liga Leumit, Israel’s second-tier soccer league.

The Times of Israel reported that the Petrushkas were residents of Incline Village and the Bay Area town of Hillsborough, and had started a tech company in 1999 that was later sold. His LinkedIn profile shows he has been investing in tech startups for about 20 years.

“In recent years, Liron was involved in various tech initiatives around the world and was a board member for startup companies Chek and UpWest Labs,” the Times said.

UpWest, a Palo Alto investment fund, confirmed the couple’s death: “Our hearts are with the Petrushka family and their sons David, Scott, and Jordan.”

“Liron and Naomi were a significant force in the building and success of UpWest from its inception,” the firm said in a statement Sunday. “They brought their entrepreneurial spirit and generosity to our fund, working with us and our founders on many pivotal milestones. Their home was always open as were their big hearts. We are all heartbroken by this loss.”

FAA records showed Petrushka had passed his latest medical check-up, a requirement for licensed airmen, in February. FAA records do not show how long Petrushka had held a pilot’s license.

Weather conditions at the time of the crash indicated that visibility was between three-quarters and one-half of a mile amid overcast skies and light snow, according to the airport’s automated weather station. Those conditions would be less than the minimum conditions required to make a landing on Runway 20, said Robert Katz, a Dallas-based pilot and flight instructor.

FAA-published approaches for both Runway 20 and Runway 11 indicate a minimum visibility of one mile or more, he said.

Weather conditions at the time of the crash and the pilot’s experience will be several factors reviewed by National Transportation Safety Board investigators, who were expected to arrive at the crash site Sunday.

“An NTSB investigator will travel to the accident site to begin the documentation of the airplane wreckage and crash site,” the agency said in a statement Sunday. “The wreckage will then be recovered to a secure facility for further evaluation.”

Federal officials urged anyone with surveillance video or other information about the crash to contact them at witness@ntsb.gov.

A preliminary report on the crash is expected within the next 30 days; the final report could take 24 months to complete, officials said.

Saturday’s crash is the first fatal incident at the Lake Tahoe-area airport since 2021 when a Bombardier Challenger 600 crashed, killing six people, after it tried to circle the airport to land on the longer runway. The twin-turbofan jet spiraled from the sky and burst into flames when it struck a wooded area near Ponderosa Golf Course.

The NTSB determined pilot error led to the crash — investigators said the probable cause of the accident was the first officer’s “improper decision” to attempt to save a poor approach with a steep left turn, and the captain’s failure to intervene. Both the pilot and first officer reportedly ignored protection system warnings, the NTSB said.

Since 2005, the airport has had four fatal incidents that have killed 11 people. The airport has roughly 35,000 aircraft operations annually, according to airport officials, which is about 95 takeoffs and landings per day.