In the immediate aftermath of Sunday’s tragic and horrific airplane crash in a wooded neighborhood of Howland that killed six, grief and bewilderment abound.

We join others in extending our condolences to the families and friends of the victims: passengers 68-year-old Veronica Weller, 67-year-old James Weller, 36-year-old John Weller and 34-year-old Maria Weller. The pilot was identified as 63-year-old Joseph Maxin, and the co-pilot as 55-year-old Timothy Blake. By all accounts, however, they were well respected members of the local aviation community.

As Anthony Trevena, executive director of the Western Reserve Port Authority, put it: “I can’t think of better people, and so our community is at a great loss, and they were really wonderful people.”

But if there is any solace to be had, it can be found in the precise location of the crash and in the swift and professional response to it from a large brigade of top-notch first responders.

The aircraft, a Cessna 441 fixed-wing turboprop, took off from Runway 32 at the Youngstown Warren Regional Airport at 6:53 a.m. bound for the Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport in Montana. According to FAA records, it made an initial left-hand turn and then crashed in a relatively densely populated suburban neighborhood. Had the plane, which has an average seating capacity of eight, veered a matter of feet farther before crashing, it would have struck an occupied home, and the casualty toll likely would have been higher.

To their credit, first responders led by the Howland Fire Department extinguished the flames swiftly and cleared and secured the perimeter of the crash scene promptly and seamlessly. Among those playing critical and praiseworthy roles in that herculean endeavor were the fire department from the nearby Youngstown Air Reserve Station, the Ohio State Highway Patrol, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, the Trumbull County Coroner’s Office, and the county Emergency Management Agency’s HAZMAT and drone teams.

Many of those on the devastatingly stressful scene no doubt speculated about what on Earth could have triggered the tragedy.

At this early point, however, any credible explanation of the cause of the crash must be considered tentative and somewhat speculative. That’s why nothing short of a full, exhaustive but expeditious investigation of the accident must take shape.

Toward that end, the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board have wasted no time in their preliminary work toward answering as many questions surrounding the crash as humanly possible.

We suspect they will follow standard protocols in such investigations by focusing on the aircraft, the operating environment on Sunday morning and the pilot.

The maintenance and safety records of the now out-of-production Cessna 441 model in general and of the specific 41-year-old unit operated by Meander Air of Warren involved in the crash must be fully examined and analyzed.

Though the FAA reports the model has a generally strong safety record over the decades, Sunday’s crash was not the Cessna’s first brush with fatal tragedy. According to the Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives, the Howland crash is listed as the fifth — and worst in lives lost — fatal crash involving the Cessna 441 in the past eight years. In some of those crashes, pilot error was listed as the probable crash cause.

That’s why a thorough background of the pilot should be one part of the investigation to determine whether any issues could have affected his ability to safely operate the aircraft.

Of course, communications records between the pilot and air traffic controllers at the local airport must be completely studied to obtain concrete details on the takeoff and final seconds of the flight and to ensure nothing went awry during those critical communications.

In addition, investigators would benefit from any and all eyewitness accounts, photos and videos of the crash. Toward that end, we urge anyone who saw the crash or its immediate aftermath to cooperate with the NTSB and add their input to the investigation. They can do so easily enough online at witness@ntsb.gov or by calling the board’s 24-hour Response Operations Center at 844-373-9922.

The sooner lingering questions surrounding the crash can be answered, the sooner the family of its victims can have needed closure and the sooner any flaws in any aspect of the flight can be revealed and remedied to avoid any similar tragedies in the future.