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

His son, Drew, and a business partner confirmed Katz's death in a crash of a Gulfstream IV private jet, which went down on takeoff from Hanscom Field outside Boston on its way to Atlantic City, New Jersey, on Saturday night. There were no survivors.

On Tuesday, Katz and Harold H.F. "Gerry" Lenfest struck a deal to gain full control of the Inquirer as well as the Philadelphia Daily News and Philly.com by buying out their co-owners for $88 million -- an agreement that ended a very public feud over the Inquirer's business and journalism direction.

James P. Leeds Sr., town commissioner of Longport, New Jersey, said his 74-year-old wife, Anne, was also aboard the plane. He received a text from Anne just four minutes before the crash saying they were about to take off, he said.

Anne Leeds, a retired preschool teacher, had been invited by her neighbor Katz on Saturday to attend an education-related function, James Leeds said. They left Longport at about 2 p.m., attended the event and went to dinner, he said.

Officials gave no information on the cause of the crash. http://www.cnbc.com/id/101720967