Federal investigators investigate cause of deadly Akron plane crash at home

Federal investigators are looking into whether high winds or other factors may have played a role in a small plane crash in Akron, Ohio, in which a passenger plane crashed into a house and exploded during a training flight, killing two people, officials said Friday.

Akron police received a call about the accident Thursday around 4 p.m. Both victims were aboard a Piper PA-28 aircraft when it crashed into the home.

At a press conference Friday, NTSB air accident investigator Aaron McCarter confirmed that the flight was a training exercise. One of the passengers was a certified flight instructor. The other was the pilot and owner of the aircraft.

The two left Akron-Fulton Airport around 2 p.m. and flew about 40 miles south. At an altitude of 2,500 feet, an attempt was made to land following standard flight training procedures. The first attempt ended in a go-around. The second attempt resulted in the aircraft flying over the runway.

“During that time, something disrupted the aircraft,” McCarter said. “A reliable witness and a doorbell camera saw the plane spiral out of the sky from about 1,000 feet, where it crashed into the road behind me and then into a house,” he added.

Investigators have not ruled out weather or other factors. “The winds were quite strong, gusting up to 25 knots,” McCarter said. “That’s something we’re looking into and we’re going to provide weather studies to help tie all the information together.”

Video shared by NBC News shows the house engulfed in flames, the fire spreading quickly and smoke rising more than 50 feet into the air. The roar of a fire engine can be heard and a passerby stops to record the scene.

There were three people in the house at the time: the father and two children. All escaped unharmed.

The wreckage was removed from the home and will be taken to the airport for further inspection. McCarter said there was “no unexpected moment at this point” regarding the cause of the crash.