Recovery efforts to begin at jet crash site in Ohio

AKRON, Ohio (AP) – A mass-fatality team will begin working to recover the bodies of victims and sift through the wreckage of a small business jet that crashed into an apartment building in northeast Ohio.

Investigators on Wednesday will attempt to determine why the jet whose owner said was carrying nine people crashed into the Akron apartment building with a huge bang, shaking furniture in homes several blocks away and leaving behind fiery debris.

The Federal Aviation Administration, the National Transportation Safety Board and other state and local officials planned to hold a news conference around noon Wednesday at the crash site.

Authorities said no one aboard the 10-seat Hawker H25 jet survived on Tuesday afternoon, but they would not confirm the number of people on the plane. Earlier they said there were at least two deaths. No one was inside the four-unit apartment building or another home that caught fire, said Lt. Sierjie Lash, an Akron fire department spokeswoman.

Plane owner Augusto Lewkowicz said two pilots and seven passengers were on the flight. He said he had talked to investigators and was trying to contact the families of the victims.