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Six people died Sunday morning when a twin-engine Cessna 441 crashed in a heavily wooded area behind a residence in Howland Township, just seven minutes after taking off from Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport.
The aircraft took off at 6:53 a.m. and crashed around 7:01 a.m. in the area of King Graves Road and Henn Hyde Road, about two miles east of the airport. According to FlightAware, the plane was bound for Bozeman, Montana.
All six people aboard the aircraft were killed, including two crew members and four passengers. The identities of the victims have not been released pending family notification. Howland Township Fire Chief Raymond Pace called it the deadliest aviation accident in the area’s history.
A resident called 911 after hearing a loud explosion and spotting flames behind her house. Neighbor Rachel Flowers said the crash woke her from sleep, describing it as sounding like thunder followed by “smoke lots of smoke, flames at the beginning.”
Emergency crews from the Howland Fire Department and Youngstown Air Reserve Station responded to the crash site. Trumbull County HAZMAT crews worked to contain and clean up spilled fuel from the wreckage.
The National Transportation Safety Board has opened an investigation into the crash. King Graves Road was temporarily closed during the initial response but has since reopened.
Airport officials expressed their grief at a 5 p.m. news conference, with aviation expert Mike Hillman calling the victims “the best of the best.”
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