Sonic boom in D.C. region caused by F-16s intercepting Cessna
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Fighter jets from Joint Base Andrews were scrambled to intercept a private plane over Virginia on Sunday afternoon, causing a sonic boom that reverberated across the area, North American Aerospace Defense Command officials said. Fast, informative and written just for locals. Get The 7 DMV newsletter in your inbox every weekday morning. ArrowRight The jets were responding to a Cessna that crashed later in Southwest Virginia, NORAD said in a statement issued Sunday night. F-16 jets from Andrews were scrambled, and the Cessna was unresponsive when hailed by authorities.
It is unclear why the Cessna did not respond or why it crashed later. Three people with knowledge of the event, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said the military did not shoot the plane down and there is no indication that the military caused the crash. The jets used flares to try to get the Cessna pilot’s attention, NORAD said.
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The Cessna was intercepted at about 3:20 p.m., but the pilot remained unresponsive and crashed near the George Washington National Forest, officials said. Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board said the plane had been unresponsive to air traffic control communications before it crashed.
The jets were authorized to travel at supersonic speeds, officials said. The loud, explosive sound from the sonic boom startled residents across the District, Maryland and Virginia around 3:10 p.m. For nearly an hour, it was unclear what had made the noise. On social media, people from Springfield, Va., to Bowie, Md., reported hearing the boom and feeling the accompanying vibrations that shook houses and left people searching for the source of the sound. The U.S. Capitol complex was briefly placed on heightened alert, Capitol Police said.
The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that a Cessna Citation jet crashed near Montebello, Va., around 3:30 p.m. Sunday. Corinne Geller, a spokesperson for the Virginia State Police, said local and state law enforcement officers are still searching for the downed plane and have not yet found a crash site. The search-and-rescue team cannot fly over the area where officials suspect the aircraft crashed because of low-hanging clouds and fog in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
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The aircraft had taken off from Elizabethton Municipal Airport in Elizabethton, Tenn., and was bound for Long Island MacArthur Airport in New York, the FAA said.
Public aviation records said the plane that crashed was registered to Encore Motors of Melbourne, a Florida-based company. Reached by phone, John Rumpel said he was the owner of Encore. Asked whether the plane that crashed was owned by Encore, he said: “To the best of my knowledge.” Rumpel said his “entire family” was on board, including his daughter, a grandchild and her nanny. “We know nothing about the crash,” he said. “We are talking to the FAA now. … I’ve got to keep the line clear.”
The FAA said the NTSB would lead the investigation into the crash. The board said investigators hoped to reach the crash site Monday.
Data from flight tracking service Flightradar24 shows a plane matching the Citation’s description and flight path reaching Long Island before turning around. The plane flew directly over Washington before the data ends near Staunton, Va.
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Source: The Washington Post
