Two people died Thursday after a small airplane crashed into a residence in Akron, sending heavy black smoke into the air and forcing crews to evacuate nearby homes. The crash happened in the 2200 block of Canterbury Circle around 3:45 p.m.
District Chief Sierjie Lash said crews were first called after residents saw a plane going down into the house. More calls followed about explosions before emergency responders reached the scene and found heavy smoke coming from the building.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol confirmed that the two people aboard the aircraft were killed in the crash. Two residences were evacuated, but nobody inside the homes was injured.
Multiple jurisdictions responded, including the Ohio State Highway Patrol and the FAA, as investigators began sorting out what happened. The aircraft was identified as a 1963 Piper Cherokee single-engine aircraft that had departed from Akron Fulton Airport.
The crash remains under investigation, and the most immediate question now is what caused the aircraft to go down over a residential block in broad daylight.
