Seven employees of a real estate company in Florida and two pilots on board the commercial jet were killed on Tuesday when a business jet crashed into an apartment building in Akron, Ohio.
According to Associated Press, the 10-seat Hawker H25 business jet took off from Dayton, Ohio, on Tuesday afternoon and crashed in Akron just three miles from its destination at Akron Fulton International Airport,
The Pebb Enterprise's website says that two principals and five employees of the firm died in the jet crash. The press release did not identify the employees though. However, Associated Press cited family members of the enterprise which included a Diane Smoot were among the victims. Smoot is apparently the director for lease administration and property accounting of Pebb Enterprise.
"Our hearts are broken this morning with the news of the tragic accident that took the lives of two principals and five employees of Pebb Enterprises. We are shocked and deeply saddened for the families, colleagues and friends of those who perished," the company said in a statement.
Visibility near Akron Fulton International Airport was reportedly poor at the time of accident. This required arriving flights to use instruments to giude them to the runway.
"Weather, in fact, is one of the key areas that we'll be looking at very carefully in this accident," National Transportation Safety Board Vice Chairman Bella Dinh-Zarr said at a briefing Wednesday afternoon.
According to the pilot that arrived before the schedule of the Hawker H25, there wasn't any distress calls on the radio frequency that pilots use to communicate near the airport.
Moreover, a surveillance video has been reviewed by NSTB. It 'showed the plane flying at a low altitude banking to its left moments before the crash,' she said. 'The left wing hit the ground first, leaving marks, before the plane struck a four-family apartment building and continued into an embankment,' Dinh-Zarr added.
The family of one of the victims had arrived in Akron. Others are still expected to come.
Is it unsafe to ride small aircrafts such as the Hawker H25 that crashed in Ohio?
