Sometimes tragedy approaches home, and sometimes it happens literally.
Such was the tragedy that occurred on Friday, February 1, 2008, when the Cessna Citation C-525 crashed into the woods near West Gardiner, Maine, just a few minutes after taking off from Augusta Airport.
The pilot was Jeanette Simons, 45; her only passenger, her son, Balan, 10. Everyone who wanted to return home a week later, while attending a ski camp at the Sugar Club, took off in extremely adverse weather conditions. They did not.
For me, this plane crash hit homes in several ways. First, West Gardiner, Maine, is just a few miles from my home. She must have almost completely collapsed on my house before her plane descended, and one of the volunteer fire departments that responded to this incident was from my city of Manchester.
Secondly, the house on which they were on the way is Steamboat Springs, Colorado; I also lived in Colorado. Thirdly, Ms. Simons was doing business in the San Francisco Bay area, the founding companies that helped shape the Internet as it exists today; I also lived in the bay area. Finally, she was a stratospheric successful entrepreneur whom I only dream of being.
The weather at that time — an unpleasant mixture of freezing rain, snow and snow, which most of the locals sought to avoid driving — was unjustifiably a factor in the accident. All the highs and hows have yet to be sorted out, and it is expected that the investigation will take from six months to a year.
Meanwhile, she leaves a 7-year-old daughter, Jenny, her parents and two brothers. And, of course, many fans, of whom I would consider myself one, although, frankly, I can’t say for sure that I have ever heard of her before this tragedy made huge headlines on page 1 of my daily newspaper.
Jeanette Simons was a “serial entrepreneur,” said her friend and co-worker Tim Donovan. She was named the richest woman in the country under the age of 40 by Fortune magazine in 2001, reportedly having a net profit of $ 374 million this year. She co-founded Zhone Technologies, a communications startup and Ascend Communications Inc., a provider of broadband network solutions that Lucent Technologies acquired for more than $ 20 billion in 1999. Her latest company, Industrious Kid, is an online website for young children.
“She wanted to bring people together and achieve good results,” said Donovan. “She was an amazing person, a fabulous, practical mother and a great friend.
The world needs a book about Janette Symons. Is anyone working on this?
