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Federal officials are investigating an unresponsive plane crash that flew near the Capitol on Sunday, and military fighter jets quickly intercepted the plane. Officials say there were no survivors in a fire in northern Virginia.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators are scheduled to arrive at the crash site on Monday, where they “will begin the process of documenting the site and inspecting the aircraft,” officials said in a statement.
The plane, with four people on board, veered more than 300 miles from its destination and crashed to the ground in Virginia on Sunday afternoon, according to investigative sources.
The small plane took off from an airport in Elizabethton, Tennessee, and was en route to Long Island MacArthur Airport in New York, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.
Virginia State Police said Sunday night that no surviving passengers were found at the crash site and that they will be released as soon as their identities are known.
It is still unclear what caused the plane to veer off course and cause the crash.
The US Capitol was put on “high alert” after a plane flew near the area on Sunday afternoon, the US Capitol said in a statement.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command said in a statement that F-16 fighter jets were “approved to fly at supersonic speeds” to make contact with a Cessna 560 Citation V.
Officials said the jet’s unusual speed caused a sonic boom across Washington, D.C., and some residents reported being startled by the sudden, reverberating sound.
“The house was shaking, the windows were rattling, that sort of thing. We were obviously a little freaked out,” Chuck Martin, who sensed the boom in Fairfax County, Virginia, told CNN affiliate WJLA. rice field. “I started calling the police. It flew at the speed of sound, it sounded a little strange.”
Maryland residents also reported hearing a boom.
“Our ring notifications have gone crazy with too many different options. Was it the navy? Or was it a sonic boom? Or was it an earthquake?” Sandy of Gambrills, Md. Abu Aljah told CNN affiliate WBAL.
When the F-16 arrived at the Cessna at about 3:20 p.m., the pilot fired flares to try to get the pilot’s attention, the statement said.
“The pilot was unresponsive, and then the Cessna crashed near the George Washington National Forest, Virginia,” the release said. “NORAD tried to establish contact with the pilot until the plane crashed.”
A US official told CNN that the F-16 did not shoot down the plane. The official said it’s common for the FAA to send a jet if someone is flying dangerously.
State and local police in Virginia spent several hours searching the scene after receiving a call about a possible crash near the northern city of Staunton, the agency said.
WHSV
Authorities discovered the plane crash site in northern Virginia on Sunday night after hours of searching.
State Police spokesman Colin Geller confirmed that none of the passengers on the plane were found alive when first responders arrived at the crash site around 8 p.m. Sunday night.
Civil aircraft are registered in Encore Motors of Melbourne is a Florida-based company, according to FAA records.
John Rumpel, whose wife, Barbara, is the president of the company, told CNN that he owns Encore. Her husband confirmed that Barbara Rumpel is safe, but declined to comment further.
John Rumpel told The New York Times that his daughter, two-year-old granddaughter and her nanny were on board. He told The Times that he and his family were returning to their home in East Hampton, New York, after a four-day trip to their home in North Carolina.
“My family, daughter and granddaughter are gone,” Barbara Rumpel said on her Facebook profile in response to an unrelated post asked if she had been on the plane.
The plane veered off course on Sunday afternoon and flew over Washington, D.C., but failed to respond to contact attempts, prompting F-16 fighter jets to respond.
Congressional police have put the Capitol building on “high alert” after planes flew through the area, the agency said.
“This afternoon, our officials were working closely with our federal partners to monitor an unresponsive pilot who was operating the plane near the metropolitan area. We have temporarily put it on high alert until further notice,” the ministry said in a statement.
It is unclear whether the aircraft entered the restricted airspace.
President Joe Biden was playing golf at the Andrews Air Force Base golf course near Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, when the sonic boom rumbled across Washington. U.S. secret services said they remained committed to ensuring President Biden’s safety after the jets were scrambled.
A White House official said the president was briefed on the incident.
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