The crew of the twin-engine Cessna 340 had radioed their intention to land at the Erie-Ottawa Regional Airport at about noon, airport director Jack Stables said. He did not know where the flight originated.
The two men and two women on board were killed, the State Highway Patrol said.
Stables said he watched the plane fly across a field near the airport to begin the landing pattern. Its landing gear and flaps were down, apparently in preparation for landing, he said.
"Everything seemed normal and I could hear both engines working fine," he said. "Then we never heard from them again."
The plane crashed in a rural residential area about 200 or 300 feet from a house, Stables said.
Officers from the Ottawa County sheriff's department, the highway patrol and other agencies went to the crash site in rural northwest Ohio.
