AKRON, Ohio — Officials have confirmed that nine people were killed when the business jet they were in crashed into a northeast Ohio apartment building.
Ohio State Highway Patrol Lt. Bill Haymaker says Wednesday that two pilots and seven passengers were killed aboard the 10-seat Hawker H25 when it clipped utility wires and crashed into a four-unit apartment building Tuesday afternoon in Akron, sparking a fire that destroyed the building. Nobody was home at any of the apartments, and there were no other injuries.
Florida real-estate company Pebb Enterprises says in a statement that two of its executives and five employees were among the plane’s passengers. No names have been released.
The jet took off from Dayton and planned to land at Akron Fulton International Airport, about 2 miles from where it crashed.
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11:20 a.m.
A flight-tracking website shows a small business jet left Florida and made several stops in the Midwest before crashing in Ohio and killing the nine people believed to be aboard.
FlightAware.com says the 10-seat Hawker H25 had left Fort Lauderdale on Monday and stopped in St. Paul, Minnesota; Moline, Illinois; and St. Louis before arriving in Cincinnati.
The plane departed from Cincinnati on Tuesday morning and stopped in Dayton before crashing into an apartment building on approach to a small airport in Akron.
A Florida real estate company says seven of its associates were among the nine believed killed in the crash. Nobody on the ground was hurt.
Authorities were back on the scene Wednesday morning to try to recover the bodies.
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10 a.m.
A Florida real estate company says seven of its associates were among the nine people believed killed when a small jet crashed into an apartment building in northeast Ohio.
Pebb Enterprises in Boca Raton says in a statement that two executives and five employees were aboard the 10-seat Hawker H25 jet that crashed and exploded Tuesday afternoon in Akron. Authorities are trying to independently confirm how many people were on board.
The statement says the company is “shocked and deeply saddened for the families, colleagues and friends of those who perished.”
Investigators returned to the site Wednesday morning at first light to begin recovery of remains.
It’s not clear what caused the crash.
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9:40 a.m.
A renowned forensics team from a Pennsylvania college has been summoned to help local officials recover bodies from the site of an Ohio plane crash.
The Summit County coroner on Wednesday sought the expertise of a forensics team from Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pennsylvania. The team specializes in crime scene and airplane crash recoveries of human remains.
There were no survivors when the 10-seat Hawker H25 jet crashed in Akron and exploded Tuesday afternoon. The owner of the plane said there were nine people onboard, and officials were trying to independently confirm that.
Investigators returned to the site Wednesday morning at first light.
Family members say one of the people aboard was Florida real estate executive who was with others scouting potential sites for shopping centers in Ohio.
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9:15 a.m.
Family members say a Florida real estate executive was among the nine people believed dead after a small jet crashed into an Ohio apartment building.
Beth Blakeslee of Newark, Ohio, says Ohio State Highway Patrol told her that 50-year-old Diane Smoot was among those who perished when the 10-seat Hawker H25 jet crashed into the building in Akron and exploded Tuesday afternoon.
The owner of the plane has said the jet was carrying nine people. Authorities say no one aboard the plane survived, but have not confirmed the number of people on the plane.
Cleveland.com (http://bit.ly/1HHRQ2O ) reports that another sister, Jeannie Ferrara, said Smoot was with a group of executives from the Boca Raton, Florida-based Pebb Enterprises, a company that scouts locations for shopping malls.
Local and federal investigators returned to the site of the crash Wednesday morning. The plane crashed about 2 miles away from a small Akron airport where it was to land.
