Israeli couple dies in small airplane crash in California
Liron Petrushka was a former soccer player for Hapoel Ramat Gan Givatayim and worked in tech with his wife Naomi
An Israeli couple was killed when the small plane they were in crashed in California on Saturday night.
Local media said two people were killed when the plane crashed in Truckee, near the Nevada state line, with the cause of the crash still unknown.
The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration will be investigating the incident, police told local media.
Israeli media reports identified the couple on Sunday as Liron and Naomi Petrushka, an Israeli couple living in California for the last few years.
They were survived by four children.
Liron was a former soccer player for the Hapoel Ramat Gan Givatayim team, and his son Jordan used to play for Israel’s junior team.
דאם ???? היזם והמשקיע לירון פטרושקה נהרג בתאונת מטוס בארצות הברית. pic.twitter.com/V9easN84WC
— NIR SHΞIN (@niron) March 31, 2024
“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.”
As well as being a former soccer player, Liron started a tech company with Naomi and his brother-in-law in 1999, which sold a year later for $242 million, according to the Ynet news site.
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.
