The chief executive and chairman of memory chip maker Micron died Friday morning when a small, experimental fixed-wing plane he was piloting crashed at Boise Airport, the company said. He was 51 years old. Micron spokesman Dan Francisco confirmed Steve Appleton's death, Appleton, a professional stunt plane pilot and former motocross racer, was the only one in the plane when it crashed.

Micron's board of directors issued a statement that said in part, "Steve's passion and energy left an indelible mark on Micron, the Idaho community and the technology industry at large." Micron Technology is a global maker of DRAM, NAND and NOR flash memory.

Appleton started on the factory floor at Micron in 1983 and worked his way up. In 1991, he was named president and chief operating officer, and in 1994 he was named chairman, chief executive officer and president. He assumed his current position in 2007. Micron, based in Boise, has 20,000 employees worldwide and is one of Idaho's largest employers.

Ada County dispatch in Idaho received reports Friday of a small plane on fire before it landed. Airport spokeswoman Patti Miller said the airplane was a fixed-wing single-engine Lancair.

The Lancair is built from kits, and others like it have design characteristics that allow the planes to fly much faster than most small planes.

Micron shares were trading at $7.95 Friday before trading was halted. The company's shares have traded between $3.97 and $11.95 over the past year. It's not the first time Appleton has been in a small plane crash, and questions have been raised in the past about whether the head of a large corporation should be engaging in that hobby. On July 8, 2004, Appleton sustained a punctured lung, head injuries, ruptured disk and broken bones after his stunt plane crashed in the desert east of Boise.

 

Appleton owned several types of aircraft and flew frequently. He had a penchant for other adventures, too: In 2006, he won the 20-car Baja Challenge Class of the SCORE Tecate Baja 1000, completing the 1,047-mile run from Enseneda to La Paz in 25 hours and 25 minutes, 30 minutes ahead of his nearest competitor.