A business jet carrying seven people and two pilots crashed into an apartment building this afternoon (Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2015) reportedly killing everyone on board in a fiery crash while on approach to Akron Fulton Airport in Ohio.
Several witnesses said they saw the aircraft clip electrical and telephone wires before hitting the apartment building and then careening into an embankment. A second building in the area, believed to be a home, also was damaged by the crash, according to witnesses. It also was reported that the plane appeared to just fall out of the sky, barely missing cars and a school bus by about 50 feet. The plane burst into flames upon impact.
The owner of the private jet told the Akron Beacon Journal that he would not yet release the identities of those aboard the 10-passenger plane, a Hawker H25, out of respect to the families, according to the Akron Beacon Journal. The flight was chartered by Execuflight, a Florida company.
Clifford Law Offices has handled numerous small plane and executive jet crashes in the past three decades. Many questions need to be answered as the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) begins its investigation into the cause of the crash. Among those questions are whether the plane had a cockpit voice recorder (CVR) on board. It also should have had radar and air traffic control communications (ATC) data from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as well as ATC communications between the pilots and air traffic control in Akron. Did it have an Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS) that tells the NTSB and families a great deal of data in the last 30 seconds of flight? That data survives a fire.
Also, weather will be examined as a factor of what the pilots were doing or not doing properly in order to try to land the plane safely. The crash occurred about 2:53 p.m., Ohio time. Since families are not allowed to be a part of the NTSB investigatory process, many victims’ families turn to experienced aviation attorneys who hire experts to gain access to documents and pertinent data in order to give the families a full picture of what possibly occurred.