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Updated | Authorities with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) arrived in Akron, Ohio, on Wednesday to investigate a plane crash there that killed all nine people on board.
The small chartered jet was on its final approach to Akron Fulton International Airport on Tuesday just before 3 p.m. ET when it crashed into a four-family apartment complex in a residential neighborhood. The plane was carrying seven passengers and two flight crew staff from the Dayton–Wright Brothers Airport. The corner along Mogadore Road where the plane smashed into the building is just a few miles from the airport.
Local authorities won't release the names of the passengers until their identities have been confirmed and family has been notified.
The victims aboard the 10-passenger Hawker 700 twin-engine plane included seven employees of Pebb Enterprises, a commercial property management firm in Boca Raton, Florida. Members of the firm issued a statement on Wednesday, saying "our hearts are broken" from the news of the tragic crash that killed two principals and five employees.
"We are shocked and deeply saddened for the families, colleagues and friends of those who perished," the statement said. NBC News reported that the employees were on a trip to scout properties to purchase. The company has not yet released the victims' names.
No other injuries were reported. The occupants of the apartment complex reportedly weren't home at the time of the crash, according to the Akron Beacon Journal.
Apartment complexes, each four-family buildings, are located on either side of the damaged structure. As many as 12 families living in the area have been affected by the crash.
Ohio State Highway Patrol Staff Lieutenant Bill Haymaker described the scene of the crash as "completely destroyed" and "heavily burned," during a press conference with reporters Wednesday.
The conditions are hindering efforts to recover the victims' bodies, authorities said. An Ohio mortuary response team is available to help identify victims and assist grieving family members, Dr. Lisa Kohler, of the state's medical examiners office, told reporters.
The flight was chartered by Florida-based ExecuFlight in Fort Lauderdale, Haymaker said.
On Monday, the aircraft first departed Fort Lauderdale for Minneapolis, Minnesota, at 6:30 a.m., then flew to Moline, Illinois, and later to St. Louis, Missouri, before landing in Cincinnati, Ohio, NTSB Vice Chairman Bella Dinh-zarr said Wednesday at a 3 p.m. news conference. The nine people on board the flight stayed overnight in Cincinnati. On Tuesday, they departed for Dayton, Ohio, at 10 a.m., then flew to Akron in the afternoon.
There is evidence the jet clipped electrical and telephone wires before crashing into the building, Dinh-zarr said. An estimated 1,500 Ohio Edison customers in the Akron area lost power as a result of the plane crash, Mark Durbin, manager of energy delivery and state communication for FirstEnergy, tells Newsweek. Ohio Edison is the FirstEnergy utility corporation that serves the Akron area. The majority of those customers were restored to service in about an hour. The remaining customers, about 35 of them, had their lights back on before 8 p.m. on Tuesday.
The cause of the crash currently is unknown. Federal Aviation Administration investigators were on scene by Tuesday afternoon. The first NTSB investigator from Chicago arrived on scene Tuesday night, and additional representatives from Washington, D.C., arrived by 10 a.m. on Wednesday. NTSB has taken over the investigation.
"Our mission is to understand not just what happened, but why it happened, and to prevent accidents like this from happening again," Dinh-zarr said at the news conference.
Thursday will be the first full day NTSB authorities will be on scene. Dinh-Zarr said she expects NTSB to be at the site of the crash for as many as five days.
Officials are expected to provide another update to the media on Thursday afternoon.
This story has been updated to include information from two press conferences on Wednesday.