Newspaper co-owner among 7 dead in Mass. plane crash

Associated Press

BEDFORD, Massachusetts

Philadelphia Inquirer co-owner Lewis Katz was killed along with six other people in a fiery plane crash in Massachusetts, just days after reaching a deal that many hoped would end months of infighting at the newspaper and help restore it to its former glory.

The 72-year-old businessman's Gulfstream corporate jet ran off the end of a runway, plunged down an embankment and erupted in flames during a takeoff attempt Saturday night at Hanscom Field outside Boston, authorities said. There were no survivors.

Katz was returning to New Jersey from a gathering at the home of Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. Also killed was a next-door neighbor of Katz's, Anne Leeds, a 74-year-old retired preschool teacher he had invited to accompany him.

The identities of the other victims weren't immediately released. Nancy Phillips, Katz's longtime partner and city editor at the Inquirer, was not aboard.

The plane was carrying four passengers, two pilots and a cabin attendant, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. Investigators said it was too soon to discuss the cause of the crash.