WASHINGTON – F-16 fighters from the D.C. National Guard scrambled Sunday at supersonic speed to intercept a private plane whose pilot was unresponsive, according to North American Aerospace Defense Command.
The fighters intercepted the Cessna 560 Citation V plane at about 3:20 p.m., and it crashed near the George Washington National Forest in Virginia. The pilot never responded to attempts to establish communication, according to Northern Command.
U.S. Capitol Police officials said they were working with federal partners to monitor the unresponsive pilot as the plane flew near the National Capital Region on Sunday afternoon. According to Capitol Police, the U.S. Capitol Complex was “briefly placed on an elevated alert until the airplane left the area.”
The intercept caused sonic booms heard across the Washington region, and the fighters also fired flares to get the pilot’s attention, according to NORAD. Officials in Bowie, Maryland, and the Annapolis Office of Emergency Management in Maryland said the sound was from a sonic boom from an aircraft flight, with the former reporting that the plane was from Joint Base Andrews.
“The loud boom that was heard across the DMV area was caused by an authorized DOD flight. This flight caused a sonic boom,” the Annapolis Office of Emergency Management said on Twitter. “That is all the information available at this time.”
The D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management said they were aware of reports from community members throughout the National Capital Region and that there “is no threat at this time.” People flooded social media with posts speculating the source of the ground-shaking sound, with several users reporting the boom shook their homes and rattled their windows.
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FAA, additional agencies investigating crash
The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement Sunday that a Cessna Citation crashed into mountainous terrain near Montebello in southwest Virginia around 3:30 p.m.
The plane departed from Elizabethton Municipal Airport in Elizabethton, Tennessee, and was bound for Long Island MacArthur Airport in New York, the agency said. But the plane turned around over Long Island and flew a straight path down over D.C.
Flight tracking websites showed the plane spiraled and at one point, dropping at a rate of more than 30,000 feet per minute before crashing. The plane was registered to Encore Motors of Melbourne Inc., which is based in Florida.
It was not immediately clear why the pilot of the plane was unresponsive, how many people were on board or why the plane crashed.
The crash is being investigated by the agency and the National Transportation Safety Board.
Virginia State Police said state and local law enforcement are conducting search efforts after being notified of a “possible aircraft crash in the Staunton/Blue Ridge Parkway region.”
At 6 p.m. a state helicopter reported sighting “bright burn spots, smaller fires, but an active fire going on.” Low clouds and foggy conditions in addition to a large amount of vegetation in the area slowed search efforts but by 8 p.m., fire and rescue teams were able to locate the crash site.
Montebello is an unincorporated community about 181 miles southwest of Washington, D.C.
Sonic boom rattled residents near DC and surrounding area
The fighter jets caused a loud sonic boom that was heard across D.C. and parts of Virginia and Maryland.
Some residents reported their homes were shaken and windows were rattled from the boom. Several users on social media said it felt like an earthquake or massive explosion.
According to The Associated Press, President Joe Biden was playing golf at Joint Base Andrews around the time officials authorized the fighters to take off. Anthony Guglielmi, spokesperson for the U.S. Secret Service, said Sunday the incident did not impact the president’s movements.
Contributing: David Jackson, USA TODAY; Jeff Schwaner, Staunton News Leader; Associated Press