The CEO of Micron Technology, Steve Appleton, died in a small plane crash today in Boise, Idaho. He was 51.

Appleton worked at the company since 1983, starting on the night shift production line. He died piloting a Lancair experimental aircraft around Boise.

He is survived by his wife Dalynn and his children.

Micron is a major semiconductor supplier and most notably built a number of memorable laptops and hard drives during the early days of the dot com years. The company currently produces the Crucial and Lexar memory lines, among other hardware.

via Micron