Eight of nine people killed in an Ohio plane crash have been identified, seven from one south Florida company.

The passengers were employees of PEBB Enterprises, a real estate company in Boca Raton. No one survived the Tuesday evening crash of the chartered plane in Akron, Ohio.

The company is a family business founded by the late Paul Wiener; its name is made up the first letters of the names of Weiner, his wife Eleanor and their two children Barbara and Bruce, the Palm Beach Post reported.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Among those identified as being killed in the crash is Jared Wiener, son of Bruce.

The other dead are: Diane Smoot, Thomas Virgin, Gary Shapiro, Ori Rom, Diana Suriel and Nick Weaver. Rom is Jared Wiener’s brother-in-law. Andres Chavez has been identified as one of the pilots of the plane.

Rabbis at two Boca Raton synagogues told WPTV that victims of the crash were members of their congregations.

“As anyone might expect. It’s surreal. It’s a shock, ” said Rabbi Robert Silvers of Congregation B’nai Israel.

The jet was operated by Execuflight, based at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport, and owned by Augusto Daniel Lewkowicz.

PEBB replaced its website’s home page with a message: “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 are shocked and deeply saddened for the families, colleagues and friends of those who perished. Our first priority is to give our fullest support to the family members and loved ones of our co-workers.”

The plane, which made no distress signals, crashed into a residential apartment building, destroying several apartments. No one was in the apartments at the time of the crash.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount