The chartered twin-engine corporate jet had departed the Dayton-Wright Brothers Airport in Miami Twp. early Tuesday afternoon before going down less than an hour later shortly before reaching an Akron airport.
The cause of the crash remains a mystery to investigators as there was no sign of a distress call before it slammed into an Akron apartment house, displacing several families but no other casualties despite bursting into flames.
The cockpit voice recorder, which has a 30-minute recording of “poor quality,” has been shipped to National Transportation Safety Board headquarters for an in-depth review, NTSB officials said late Thursday afternoon.
Authorities were not releasing the names of those people killed until they could positively identify them, but family members and others were coming forward with their own announcements, some of which were posted on social media.
The fund-raising site gofundme.com is hosting a memorial for Shapiro. The posting said he died along with eight others who “tragically lost their lives in a plane crash.”
“Gary is survived by his wife Corey, and daughters Sammie (3 yrs) & Abigail (2 months). Please help support Corey and the girls,” the posting says.
Shapiro joined Boca Raton, Fla.-based real estate investment company Pebb last month as director of leasing, overseeing the leasing of the company’s portfolio, according to its website. His online biography indicates he joined the company in October after leaving Kin Properties Inc., where worked for eight years and was senior leasing manager.
He attended college in Arizona and Hawaii before earning his bachelor’s degree in marketing from Florida Atlantic University, his biography states.
Others who Pebb employees who died, according to various media reports, include: Nick Weaver; Manager Diane Smoot; Manager Thomas Virgin; Project Manager Diana Suriel; Principal Jared Weiner, son of the company’s co-founder; and Managing Principal Ori Rom. The pilot has been identified as Oscar Andres Chavez.
The crash occurred shortly before 3 p.m. Tuesday, about 45 minutes after the plane took off from Dayton-Wright Brothers Airport.
Pebb has been in the process of buying the former Cub Foods site in Sugarcreek Twp. and has been aggressively marketing the property at 6134 Wilmington Pike, those familiar with the industry said.
Local officials said “we’re pleased that Pebb was purchasing it,” said Sugarcreek Twp. Administrator Barry Tiffany.
Since the crash “their website is just one page – talking about their loss,” he added. “But typically on their website their portfolio is large, vast and very extensive as far as the number of clients they have in their facilities, and there’s a great variation also.”
On Wednesday, Pebb changed its website, posting a message stating “our hearts are broken this morning with the news of the tragic accident that took the lives of two principals and five employees of Pebb Enterprises. … We ask for the media’s understanding and cooperation at this time of unimaginable loss and mourning and are not responding to media requests at this time.”
Sugarcreek officials will “be as patient as we can be given the circumstances,” Tiffany said. “We weren’t pushing them anyhow. But this is a tremendous loss for the company and we understand. Whatever time they need to move forward, then take it.”
The former Cub Foods site is owned by the St. Louis-based BOW Sugarcreek LLC, the parent company of Panera Bread, according to the Greene County Auditor’s Office. The auditor’s office said Thursday its records do not indicate the property had changed hands in recent days.
Two local real estate professionals who had discussions with Pebb officials about the future of the former Cub Foods site said those talks did not pan out because of their clients’ decisions.
Paul Howe of Paul Howe Realty said his dealings with Pebb officials – including executive Jared Weiner - were “very informal” and “nothing ever happened, nothing ever materialized and the conversations were brief.”
Likewise, Robert Zavakos, senior vice president of NAI Bergman, said his discussions included Weiner and letters of intent. However, Zavakos sent Pebb’s Shapiro an email this week stating his client’s change of plans.
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