AKRON, Ohio—A private charter jet with nine people on board crashed into an Akron apartment building Tuesday afternoon, leaving no survivors.
The owner of the plane confirmed nine people were on board. Authorities Tuesday evening said no one on the plane survived, but they would not yet confirm the number of people on board or dead.
It appeared no one on the ground in the Ellet area where the crash occurred was injured or killed.
Eyewitnesses described the plane as falling out of the sky and a huge ball of fire after the crash, which happened shortly before 3 p.m.
Augusto Lewkowicz, the owner and operator of the plane, told The Akron Beacon Journal Tuesday afternoon that he would not release the names of the seven passengers or two crew members in the fatal crash near the corner of Mogadore and Skelton roads in Akron.
“I owe responses to the family members first,” Lewkowicz said.
It wasn’t known whether any of the crash victims were from the Akron area.
The mid-size corporate jet was on the second leg of a charter that began Monday, Lewkowicz said, noting that there was no indication before the crash that anything was wrong.
“It was a perfectly well-maintained aircraft with no squawks,” Lewkowicz said, adding that there was no chatter from the pilots to indicate anything was out of the ordinary.
The flight was chartered by Execuflight, a Florida company.
According to FlightAware.com, the plane originated in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. and made a stop at Dayton’s Wright Brothers Airport before leaving at 2:13 p.m. Tuesday for Akron Fulton International Airport.
Staff Lt. Bill Haymaker of the Ohio State Highway Patrol described the plane’s final path to the airport, which was about four miles away from the crash site.
The aircraft clipped electrical and telephone wires on Mogadore Road before hitting a small apartment building at 2:53 p.m. and careening into an embankment. That building was completely destroyed, Haymaker said. A second house in the area also was damaged, likely from the fire debris.
The occupants of the building that was destroyed weren’t home at the time of the crash.
The owner of the apartment building was not immediately available to comment.
The area is a heavily residential neighborhood with some small commercial businesses, including an auto body shop and a mom-and-pop eatery.
As fire and police crews were on the scene Tuesday afternoon, not far from Ellet High School, onlookers tried to get a closer look. Some were crying and embracing.
The fire burned hotly late into the afternoon, making further investigation difficult, Haymaker said.
Haymaker and Summit County Medical Examiner Lisa Kohler said the investigation would continue through the night and Wednesday when there will be more light.
“It is a recovery process,” confirmed Haymaker during a news conference. “We know the plane could have held up to 10 people. We know there’s family out there that want to know if their loved ones were in the crash. It’s going to be a process … that could go all day long.
“The plane is burnt. That is going to take some time,” he said, though adding that the scene was not a “large debris field.”
When asked about the number of crash victims, Haymaker said authorities have heard several different numbers but had not talked to the owner of the plane.
Haymaker said there was no information available about any potential distress call made from the plane before the crash. He was also asked whether the rain or weather could have had anything to do with the crash.
The National Weather Service reported fog and mist in the area around the time of the crash and recorded visibility at about 1.5 miles.
“Obviously, you know what the weather is tonight. There is cloud cover and rain. That is all speculation if that had anything to do with the crash,” he said.
Tony Molinaro, a spokesman with the Federal Aviation Administration, identified the plane as a Hawker H25 business jet that crashed while on approach to Akron Fulton Airport.
Two FAA investigators were on the scene Tuesday afternoon and the National Transportation Safety Board was expected to be there by evening. Molinaro said the NTSB will be in charge of the investigation.
Neither the FAA nor the NTSB would confirm injuries or fatalities and did not release the names of pilots or passengers, deferring to local authorities.
Akron police and firefighters responded, with firefighters who worked to extinguish a massive fire created by the crash, according to a city press release.
Pieces of the plane, engulfed in flame, skidded off an embankment behind the home before igniting an apartment building. The crash caused at least 1,500 customers to lose power and Ohio Edison officials said all but 100 customers were restored by 4:30 p.m.
Witnesses took to Twitter to post eyewitness pictures and videos of the fiery crash. One photo, sent by a viewer to newsnet5.com, which posted the picture, shows fire engulfing power lines and an apartment building.
The crash was a lead story on several national TV news stations Tuesday night and was a trending topic on Facebook and Twitter.
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(Staff writers Jim Mackinnon and Stephanie Warsmith contributed to this report.)
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©2015 Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio)
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Aftermath of Akron plane crash into apartment building. Pilot and co-pilot both killed. Video sent in by viewer pic.twitter.com/Igp3gn9c2q
— Jessica Dill (@JessicaLynnDill) November 10, 2015
