A twin engine Cessna 310 registered to a Tesla Motors engineer crashed shortly after takeoff Wednesday morning in East Palo Alto, wrecking three homes and a day care center and killing all three on board. Miraculously, no one on the ground was injured.

A Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said the plane was headed for Hawthorne Municipal Airport. Tesla, which plans to build a manufacturing plant in Los Angeles County, has a design studio in Hawthorne.

Menlo Park Fire Chief Harold Schapelhouman said a pilot and two passengers bound are dead, after the plane struck a high-tension transmission tower. It was leaving Palo Alto Airport, causing a massive power outage across the city and surrounding areas.

Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk told Bloomberg News that the crash killed three employees but did not provide details.

The Cessna is registered to Air Unique Inc., which has a Santa Clara address. According to the Secretary of State Web site, the business owner is Doug Bourn. Bourn is an electrical engineer at Tesla, where he helped design and test the power electronics module for the Tesla Roadster.

• Read coverage in the San Jose Mercury News.

• Read updates from the Los Angeles Times.