Friends identify the dead as Gregg Weingeroff and Jeffrey Jacober, both successful businessmen, their wives and two children.

01:00 AM EST on Saturday, March 26, 2005

BY ELIZABETH GUDRAIS
Journal Staff Writer

A single-engine plane registered to a Providence company crashed in central Pennsylvania yesterday, killing all six on board -- prominent Rhode Islanders.

Family and friends identified the dead as Gregg and Dawn Weingeroff and their 10-year-old son, Leland; and Jeffrey and Karen Jacober and their son, Eric, 15, all of Providence. As of late last night, authorities had not released the names of the deceased.

Gregg Weingeroff and Jeffrey Jacober were eminent businessmen, and their families were active in philanthropy and in the East Side Jewish community, family friend Carl Freedman said yesterday evening.

Freedman, a Providence lawyer who represented both men and described them as "very close" personal friends, said the families were on their way to watch the Jacobers' 21-year-old son, Michael, play in a lacrosse game at Penn State, where he is captain of the lacrosse team.

The plane went down around 1:40 p.m. in a field in Benner Township, Pa., five miles from Penn State. Benner Township is equidistant from Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, about three hours' drive from each.

The plane, a 1999 Pilatus PC-12/45 single-engine turboprop, took off from Naples, Fla., where the families had been visiting relatives, Freedman said.

The plane was headed for University Park Airport in State College, Pa. Jeffrey Jacober, the pilot, received clearance to land there from a control center on Long Island, FAA eastern region spokesman Jim Peters said. "There was no indication from the aircraft of any problem," he said. The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash.

Jacober, who was 51, was an experienced pilot. "He had flown for years for both business and pleasure, and nobody was more detail-oriented," Freedman said.

Jacober had volunteered as a pilot for Angel Flight Northeast, a charitable organization that provides free flights to hospitals for people who need medical care.

He was chairman and CEO of the Ocean Group Inc., a business incubator whose largest company is MedPort Inc., a developer of innovative consumer health-care products including curved digital thermometers and electronic pill organizers. Jacober founded more than a dozen businesses in fields including printed T-shirts and sporting goods, as well as medical products, according to the Ocean Group Web site.

He and Karen Jacober, who was 49, lived at 498 Cole Ave. Eric Jacober attended the Wheeler School, in Providence, through eighth grade, but was a student at St. Andrew's School in Barrington this year, The Associated Press quoted the head of the Wheeler School as saying.

At Penn State, Michael Jacober was staying with lacrosse coach Glenn F. Thiel until arrangements could be made for him to return to Providence. "We've got lots of people here for support," Thiel said. "We're doing the best we can."

Besides Michael, the Jacobers have another surviving son, David, who is 25 and lives in Washington, D.C., Freedman said.

Weingeroff, 49, was president of Weingeroff Enterprises, a Cranston-based costume jewelry manufacturer. The City of Cranston Web site lists Weingeroff Enterprises as one of the city's principal employers, with 100 employees.

The Weingeroffs lived at 11 Loring Ave. Leland Weingeroff attended the Wheeler School.

Freedman said Gregg Weingeroff had an adult daughter from a previous marriage.

Both families were members of Temple Beth El on Providence's East Side.

"The magnitude of the loss is too much for me to really understand at this point," Freedman said. "These were two wonderful families. I will miss them very, very dearly."

The two families were working last night to notify friends and relatives who hadn't yet heard the tragic news, DeeDee Witman, who described herself as a step-aunt of Gregg Weingeroff, said. "Everyone is simply beside themselves," she said.