Officials confirmed that F-16 fighter jets were scrambled by the United States in a supersonic pursuit of a light aircraft with an unresponsive pilot. The small plane violated airspace in the Washington D.C. area and eventually crashed into the mountains of Virginia. The pursuit caused a sonic boom over the US capital, alarming the people in the vicinity.
According to sources, the Cessna Citation, known as the errant plane, had four people on board. The aircraft, registered to Encore Motors of Melbourne, Florida, is capable of carrying between seven to twelve passengers, as reported by Flight Aware, a flight-tracking website. John Rumpel, the owner of Encore Motors, stated that his daughter, grandchild, and nanny were on board the plane. However, he claimed to have no information about the crash and mentioned that he was in contact with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) stated that attempts were made to establish contact with the unresponsive pilot, but to no avail. The Cessna, seemingly on autopilot, crashed near the George Washington National Forest in Virginia. In an effort to gain the pilot’s attention, NORAD authorized supersonic speeds for their aircraft and employed flares. However, a US official confirmed that the jet fighters did not cause the crash.
The Cessna initially departed from Elizabethton Municipal Airport in Tennessee and was destined for Long Island MacArthur Airport in New York. However, it made a nearly 180-degree turn, altering its course and ultimately crashing in Virginia. Authorities from the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will conduct investigations into the incident.
Instances of unresponsive pilots, while rare, have occurred in the past. In 1999, golfer Payne Stewart and four others lost their lives after their aircraft flew for thousands of miles with the occupants unconscious. The plane eventually crashed in South Dakota. Similarly, in 2014, a small US private plane with an unresponsive pilot deviated far from its course towards southwest Florida, prompting a security alert and a fighter jet escort before it crashed off the east coast of Jamaica.
The sonic boom caused significant disturbance in the Washington area, with numerous residents reporting the loud noise that shook the ground and walls. The impact of the boom was felt as far as northern Virginia and Maryland, according to several witness accounts on Twitter.
