BOISE, Idaho — The image Steve Appleton cultivated as a stunt pilot and off-road rally driver became the perfect metaphor for his wild, 18-year ride as the leader of Micron Technology Inc., where stomach-churning swings from billion-dollar profit to billion-dollar loss required the constitution of a business daredevil to survive.
Appleton, Micron’s chief executive officer, died Friday morning when his experimental plane crashed at the Boise Airport, west of Micron’s desert campus.
He was no stranger to plane crashes, surviving at least two earlier wrecks including one in 2004 that left him seriously injured. He was the only person aboard on Friday when the small Lancair crashed shortly after its second take-off attempt in Boise, according to safety investigators.
Appleton was known as a driven competitor in a volatile industry. Away from the office, he channeled that energy into high-octane hobbies, pursuing his passions as a stunt pilot, off-road racer and scuba diver.
“He lived life to the fullest, and while he enjoyed great success in business and in life, he never lost his intensity or his drive,” Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter said in a statement.
In the wake of the 51-year-old’s death, Micron’s board of directors headed to Boise for a weekend meeting to discuss the company’s next steps. Micron spokesman Dan Francisco said company president and chief operating officer D. Mark Durcan would take on Appleton’s responsibilities until the board appoint his successor.
Corporate governance experts raised questions in the past about whether Appleton, as CEO, should be engaging in a hobby as risky as stunt piloting, but Micron’s board accepted it as simply part of Appleton’s work-hard and play-hard personality. The company’s shares have traded between $3.97 and $11.95 over the past year, and shares were up 23 cents at $7.95 Friday before trading was halted for the announcement.
“Steve’s passion and energy left an indelible mark on Micron, the Idaho community and the technology industry at large,” Micron’s board of directors said in a prepared statement.
Micron makes semiconductor chips for computers, mobile devices, cameras and other devices. It makes products under the Lexar and Crucial brands, and is one of Idaho’s largest and most influential employers. In its latest fiscal year, which ended Sept. 1, Micron earned $167 million, or 17 cents per share, and had revenue of $8.8 billion.
Betsy Van Hees, an analyst from San Francisco’s Wedbush Securities, always figured Appleton was the ideal persona to lead an upstart from the wilds of Idaho in the turbulent global memory industry. People must be thrill-seekers to be in the computer memory business, especially in recent years, Van Hees said.
“You look at what’s happened in the industry over the years, its many ups and downs — more downs than ups lately — and Steve had stayed committed to that, and to staying in Boise,” she said. “It’s not a business for the faint of heart.”
Crash investigators say Appleton hadn’t filed a flight plan and by all indications planned to stay in the area for a recreational flight on a clear, sunny morning.
Air safety investigator Zoe Keliher with the National Transportation Safety Board said the crash happened during Appleton’s second attempt to fly that morning. She said Appleton’s first take-off ended abruptly — witnesses said the plane only got about 5 feet off the ground — when he re-landed and returned to a hangar for about five minutes.
Keliher said witnesses reported that the plane then returned to the runway to take off again, but Appleton almost immediately told the tower he needed to turn around and re-land. His plane was about 100 or 200 feet in the air before witnesses say it crashed and caught fire. Appleton’s body was thrown from the wreckage.