Seven of the nine people who died in a fiery plane crash in Akron, Ohio, this week were members of a South Florida commercial real estate firm.
Pebb Enterprises, based outside of Boca Raton, has issued a statement that said "our hearts are broken" with the "unimaginable loss" of two principals and five employees.
"We are shocked and deeply saddened for the families, colleagues and friends of those who perished," said a statement for the firm. "Our first priority is to give our fullest support to the family members and loved ones of our co-workers."
A pilot and co-pilot also died in the crash, Ohio State Highway Patrol Staff Lt. William P. Haymaker said.
A sister of Diane Smoot (50), Pebb's director of lease administration and property accounting, told The Plain Dealer that Smoot was among the ill-fated passengers on the flight and that Pebb notified Smoot's son that she died.
"I'm just heartbroken," Beth Blakeslee of Newark, Ohio, told the newspaper. "You never expect something like this to happen to your family."
UPDATE: Pilot and co-pilot killed in small plane crash into apartment building in Akron. Viewer photo. pic.twitter.com/dgdR9cLwb1
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The company did not name its employees who died aboard a twin-engine Hawker 125-700 that left Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport.
Dr. Lisa Kohler, Summit County medical examiner, said that before any names from the flight's manifest would be released, her agency would rely on matching medical records supplied by survivors to the victims' IDs and remains.
That task will be aided by 22 people, including forensic anthropologists from Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pa., she said.
Though there were no reports of injuries on the ground, Haymaker said 12 families in three buildings were affected by the crash and displaced from their homes.
He said the debris field was relatively small and confined to an area between one of those homes and an embankment.
According to FlightAware, an online program that tracks planes via their transponders, Pebb's charter departed Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport at about 7am on Monday (local time) and flew to St. Paul, Minn., St. Louis and Cincinnati. On Tuesday, the plane flew to Dayton. It took off at 2:13pm, bound for Akron, about a 35-minute flight.
Its path ended at about 2:53pm in a thundering crash in a residential Akron neighborhood called Ellet, about two miles northeast of its destination, the Akron Fulton International Airport and its 6,336-foot runway.
A woman who lives several blocks away told the Associated Press that she heard a big bang, and that her couch shook from the impact. Another witness told WEWS-TV that the wreckage looked like a bomb exploded, the AP reported.
The Hawker struck power lines and crashed into a four-family apartment complex and the embankment, the patrol's Haymaker said.
The apartment building was unoccupied at the time and it too caught fire, Haymaker said.
The National Transportation Safety Board dispatched a "go-team" -- sent to accidents with a high number of fatalities -- to investigate the crash.
