7 of 9 killed in Ohio plane crash were from Florida firm

Reporting from AKRON, Ohio — Seven associates of a Florida real estate investment company were among nine people killed when a small jet crashed into an apartment building and burst into flames.

The crash Tuesday in Akron — two miles from the small airport where the plane was to land — killed two executives and five employees of Pebb Enterprises, a Boca Raton-based company that specializes in shopping centers, the company confirmed. The two pilots also were killed.

A pilot who had just landed at the airport reported hearing no distress calls despite being on the same communications frequency as the aircraft that went down, the National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday.

The NTSB recovered the plane’s cockpit voice recorder, which was being sent to a lab in Washington.

Investigators reviewed surveillance video from a construction company that showed the 10-seat Hawker H25 business jet coming in along the tops of trees and banking to the left before it crashed and exploded into flames and a cloud of black smoke, said Bella Dinh-Zarr, vice chairwoman of the NTSB.

Officials haven’t released names of the victims.

Nobody was home at any of the apartments, and there were no other injuries.

Roberta Porter, who lives about a block from the site, said she was driving home when she saw the plane crash and burst into flames.

“This plane just dropped out of the sky, veered and crashed into the apartment building,” Porter said.