Federal investigation of Akron jet crash continues

“The video shows that the aircraft was flying at a low altitude and banking to the left”, NTSB Vice Chairman, Bella Dinh-Zarr said.

A flight-tracking website shows a small business jet left Florida and made several stops in the Midwest before crashing in OH and killing the nine people believed to be aboard. ‘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.

“We are shocked and deeply saddened for the families, colleagues and friends of those who perished”, the company said.

Jeannie Ferrera said her younger sister was one of those Pebb Enterprises employees.

She said it’s scary to think that if she had been driving faster the plane might have clipped her auto.

There was no distress call, and the plane changed radio frequencies from the Akron-Canton approach control center to Akron Fulton airport’s traffic frequency, which is not monitored by a control tower.

According to FlightAware, an online program that tracks planes via their transponders, Pebb’s charter departed Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport at about 7 am Monday (local time) and flew to St. Paul, Minn., St. Louis and Cincinnati.

The cockpit voice recorder from the crash was sent to an NTSB lab in Washington.

The plane, a 10-seat Hawker H25 chartered jet, was on approach to the airport when it crashed, reported news service AFP.

“There were a lot of popping noises, like a lot of fireworks were going off”, Seth Yergin, who captured the fiery scene on video, said to WEWS.

The process could take days, said State Highway Patrol Lt. Bill Haymaker.

Most of the victims were from Florida, but authorities said they wouldn’t release any names until the bodies have been identified.

“We’re still in the fat gathering stage of the investigation”, Dinh-Zarr said during a 4 p.m. press conference in Akron on Thursday.

As the first large pieces of fuselage from the crash were hauled away, the phones were still quiet at Professional Grinding, a small, three-man tool and die business in Akron. “What I would give to have you back”.

Mia Jones, who also lives in a Mogadore apartment, said she thought a train had derailed when she heard the crash. “When we were walking toward the front door, and we just hit the deck in two different directions”, he said.

Jason Bartley, 38, told the Akron Beacon Journal that he feels lucky but also in shock over the crash.

But she refused repeated requests to say whether the tape recorded whether the pilot and the co-pilot – both of whom had thousands of hours of flight experience and the Federal Aviation Administration’s highest certification – could be heard talking about the impending crash.