WASHINGTON, June 4 (Reuters) - The United States scrambled F-16 fighter jets in a supersonic chase of a light aircraft with an unresponsive pilot that violated airspace around Washington D.C. and later crashed into the mountains of Virginia, officials said.
No survivors were found at the crash site, Virginia state police said.
The jet fighters created a sonic boom over the U.S. capital as they pursued the errant Cessna Citation, officials said, causing consternation among people in the Washington area.
Four people were onboard the Cessna, a source familiar with the matter said. A Cessna Citation can carry seven to 12 passengers.
After several hours first responders reached the crash site but found no one alive, the Virginia State Police said in a statement.
The Cessna was registered to Encore Motors of Melbourne, Florida, according to the flight-tracking website Flight Aware.
Encore owner John Rumpel told the Washington Post his daughter, a grandchild and her nanny were on board.
"We know nothing about the crash," the Post quoted Rumpel as saying. "We are talking to the FAA now," he added before ending the call.
The U.S. military attempted to contact the pilot, who was unresponsive, until the Cessna crashed near the George Washington National Forest in Virginia, North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said in a statement.
The Cessna appeared to be flying on autopilot, another source familiar the matter said.
"The NORAD aircraft were authorized to travel at supersonic speeds and a sonic boom may have been heard by residents of the region," the statement said, adding that NORAD aircraft also used flares in an attempt to the pilot's attention.
A U.S. official said the fighters did not cause the crash.
The Cessna took off from Elizabethton Municipal Airport in Elizabethton, Tennessee, and was bound for Long Island MacArthur Airport in New York, about 50 miles (80 km) east of Manhattan, the FAA said in a statement, adding that it and the National Transportation Safety Board would investigate.
According to Flight Aware, the plane appeared to reach the New York area, then made nearly a 180-degree turn.
Incidents involving unresponsive pilots are not unprecedented. Golfer Payne Stewart died in 1999 along with four others after the aircraft he was in flew thousands of miles with the pilot and passengers unresponsive. The plane eventually crashed in South Dakota with no survivors.
In the case of Stewart's flight, the plane lost cabin pressure, causing the occupants to lose consciousness because of oxygen deprivation.
Similarly, a small U.S. private plane with an unresponsive pilot crashed off the east coast of Jamaica in 2014 after veering far off course and triggering a U.S. security alert including a fighter jet escort.
On Sunday, the sonic boom rattled many people in the Washington area who took to Twitter to report hearing a loud noise that shook the ground and walls. Several residents said they heard the noise as far away as northern Virginia and Maryland.
Reporting by David Shepardson, Phil Stewart, Ted Hesson, David Lawder, Daniel Trotta, Rachael Levy and Diane Bartz; Writing by Ross Colvin and Daniel Trotta; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Gerry Doyle
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Stenthal on June 4th, 2023 at 23:58 UTC »
This sounds awful:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/06/04/sonic-boom-washington-virginia-maryland/
guacharusmaximus on June 4th, 2023 at 21:59 UTC »
I live in DC and am a private pilot.
What we now know is that Cessna jet with registration N611VG flew over the DC controlled airspace at 34,000 feet, since it was not responding to radio calls an F-16 was cleared to fly supersonic in order to catch up to the errant Cessna jet. The Cessna jet subsequently crashed in Virginia.
Based on initial reports this sounds similar to the 1999 case of golfer Payne Stewart in which all occupants of the jet died of hypoxia. If a plane at 34,000 feet loses compression without the pilots noticing, after about 30 seconds everybody on the plane will lose consciousness and the plane could exhibit the kind of flight path followed by N611VG.
untamedlazyeye on June 4th, 2023 at 20:53 UTC »
WASHINGTON, June 4 (Reuters) - U.S. authorities scrambled jet fighters to pursue a light aircraft that violated airspace in the Washington D.C. area and later crashed into mountainous terrain in southwest Virginia, U.S. officials said.
The jet fighters caused a sonic boom over the U.S. capital as they raced to catch up with the Cessna Citation, which can carry between seven to 12 passengers, officials said.
The Federal Aviation Administration said a Cessna aircraft crashed into mountainous terrain in southwest Virginia around the time the sonic boom was heard in the capital.
A U.S. official said the jet fighters did not cause the crash.